Our Gunner women have made it to the UEFA Women’s Champions League quarterfinals with 2 games to spare. Now it seems the men’s team is also looking to make the knockout stages.
Our Gunners, who had been absent from the Premier European competition for almost 6 years, made a triumphant return to Champions League football last season. Labelled inexperienced and not ready to dance with the big boys, our Gunners shocked many with their spirited run on the continental stage that saw them reach the quarters.
They hoped to build on that, but the changing Champions League format presented a more formidable obstacle. The competition transitioned from a group stage format to a league phase format. We expected this change to intensify the competition, as teams would face more challenging opponents early in the competition, rather than waiting until the knockout stages.
In a league of 36 teams, the teams finishing in the top eight in the league will qualify automatically for the last 16, while the teams finishing in ninth to 24th place will compete in a two-legged play-off against each other to join the top eight teams in that round of the competition.
So far Arsenal in Europe has risen to the occasion, as their results suggest:
Atalanta 0-0 Arsenal
Arsenal 2-0 PSG
Arsenal 1-0 Shakhtar
Inter 1-0 Arsenal
Sporting CP 1-5 Arsenal
After that win over Sporting CP Tuesday night, our boys in red and white have now come through the toughest away games against Inter Milan, Atalanta, and Sporting and still sit in the top 8 as it stands.
The remaining three straightforward fixtures, Monaco (at home), Zagreb (at home), and Girona (away), offer more opportunities to conclude the UCL league phase in style. Our boys are now in a fantastic position to finish in the top 8 and look to go further in the competition. Could us Gooners now be thinking of buying our UCL 2025 Final Tickets before the prices start going up?
Even without a trip to Dubai to recharge and reflect, it is wonderful that our Gunners have turned things around after a tricky run before the international break. What a wonderful time to be a Gunner! The situation only gets better as Manchester City continues to drop points.
It’s looking pretty good for Arsenal in 7th place at present – although their position is on goal difference as they share their points total with six other teams.
The new CL format has produced some surprises (so far at least) over the old version.
The likes of PSG (now clearly a shadow of their former selves) are way down in 25th place and could be eliminated. Even mighty Real Madrid are just within a play-off group currently, although they’ll probably ensure they remain there. Other European heavyweights are distributed in the various play-off sections so some will be there or thereabouts for the next stage I imagine.
True phase five is taking shape nicely.
Yes. Looks good and Well done to the ladies too
Not sure we shocked many
True, but I think before the competition started there would have been some surprise that Arsenal was in the top eight automatic qualifiers group at this stage, not that they would be in a qualifying place overall though.
As I said in an earlier post, the new format seems to have shaken things up given the relatively poor performance of some of the usual “heavyweights”. Currently, Bayern Munich, Milan, Real Madrid and PSG have all performed moderately to badly so far. There’s still a way to go yet of course and I wouldn’t be surprised if some of those didn’t move up the table.
1
To say straight forward games, is a bit disrespectful to the next three teams we face in the competition.
As Haaland would say, stay humble. Yes we’ve got a good chance, but don’t underestimate the other sides.
City found out the hard way the other night, didn’t they.
We must not make the same mistake.
Yes. As long as Arsenal finish in the top 16. Only one point separates the current 6th place (straight to R16 group) and the current 16th place (the bottom of the seeded places group) so it’s still tight.
Funny though, they are proving Halland right