Arsenal face European reunion after Champions League opponents begin to take shape
Arsenal’s potential Champions League opponents will soon be known as the first legs of the final play-off round were completed
The Champions League qualifying final play-off round first legs finished Wednesday evening as Arsenal await the news of who the eight teams are they will face will be in this season’s competition. The draw for the first stage of the revamped tournament takes place on August 29, where the Gunners will learn which four teams will be coming to the Emirates Stadium and the four different sides they will be travelling to in an extended initial phase that crosses into the new year.Arsenal will be in pot 2 of the competition but will face two teams from each of the four pots regardless. The teams in pot 1 have been decided and are made up of Manchester City, Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Inter Milan, Borussia Dortmund, RB Leipzig and Barcelona.
While the Gunners are joined in pot 2 by Bayer Leverkusen, Atletico Madrid, Juventus, Atalanta, Benfica, Arsenal, Club Brugge, Shakhtar Donetsk and AC Milan, pots 3 and 4 have some confirmed clubs but others are decided through the qualifying play-offs.
Arsenal know that Feyenoord, Sporting CP, PSV Eindhoven and Celtic are in the third pot and Monaco, Aston Villa, Bologna, Girona, Stuttgart, Sturm Graz and Brest are in pot 4. Three more teams will join pot 3 and one more in pot 4.
There are two routes in the qualifying: the Champions Path and the League Path. Of the five Champions Path matches after the first leg, Young Boys lead Galatasaray 3-2, Dinamo Zagreb lead Qarabag 3-0, Midtjylland and Slovan Bratislava are level with a goal each, Bodo/Glimt lead Red Star Belgrade 2-1 and Malmo lost their home leg 2-0 to Sparta Prague.
The two League Path matches saw Lille beat Slavia Prague at home 2-0 and Red Bull Salzburg won by the same scoreline at Dynamo Kyiv. Arsenal fans should recognise several teams they could therefore reunite with again.
Thierry Henry scored his record-breaking 186th Arsenal goal against Sparta Prague in 2005, older generations will not want to be reminded of the 2000 UEFA Cup final defeat to Galatasaray on penalties and younger fans should remember to meet with Bodo/Glimt under Mikel Arteta in 2022 where the side won 1-0 away and 3-0 at home.
Any sides drawn in pots 3 and 4 with Arsenal will be expected to be games that Arteta might choose to rotate in. Despite the presence of Unai Emery’s Aston Villa, rules dictate teams from the same nation cannot yet meet in this stage of the tournament, and clubs can only face a maximum of two sides from the same country – other than their own of course.
The second legs of the final qualifying round take place next week with the draw hours after. It is set to be an exciting year of European action with the Gunners ranked as high as third favourites by many bookies ahead of the new tournament.
