Match begins 8.00 p.m.
Two of the biggest teams in Europe that have never tested the UEFA Champions League title, Arsenal and Paris St.Germain, will begin a battle to qualify for the final of this year’s championship at the Emirates Stadium, London, this evening.
No team comes into the last four on more of a high than Arsenal after they swept aside Real Madrid 5-1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals. As in that tie, the Gunners are at home first and they have arguably produced their best work in London so far in this campaign.
The 3-0 first-leg victory against Madrid stretched their unbeaten run to 17 UEFA competition home matches, so there will be a degree of expectancy in the opening installment of their first Champions League semifinal since 2008/09.
Mikel Arteta’s men will also be buoyed by October’s impressive 2-0 victory against Paris in front of their own fans in this season’s league phase. Though Paris have yet to win in five competitive games against the north London club (D3 L2), they will take heart from the fact that they have seen off two high-flying Premier League sides in the knockout phase already this season – Liverpool in the round of 16 and Aston Villa in the quarterfinals – and had won four straight away games in the Champions League before their second-leg defeat at Villa Park.
The French outfit are also more experienced at this stage of the competition, having now reached the semifinals in four of the last six seasons. Spesaking on his expectations of today’s game, Arsenal Manager, Mikel Arteta, said in the pre-match conference: “My preference has always been to play the second game at home, but it’s what we have at the moment. So, learn from it, see what the advantages are and the opportunities where they are. In European games, the second leg is absolute madness. It can go anywhere.
“So, it’s great to learn as well about these kinds of scenarios and why these things happen, because it can be very useful for us.”
His opposite number, Luis Enrique, said he would prepare for set pieces in the same way as he did against Liverpool, alluding to Arsenal’s proficiency with dead balls.
Enrique, along with Manchester City boss, Pep Guardiola, played a major role in Arteta’s impressive transition from the pitch to the dug-out. He was a senior star at Barcelona when Arteta started his playing career at the Camp Nou, a period that had a major impact on his managerial philosophy with Arsenal.
“He was extremely supportive with the young players, he was one of the main characters by far. I have really good memories of him,” Arteta said.
“What I love about him is wherever he’s been, as a player or a manager, his fingerprints are all over the place. “You can sense it’s his team with the way his players behave, the way they want to attack and dominate games.”
The pupil has already got the better of his mentor once this season, when Arsenal eased to a 2-0 win over PSG in the league phase at the Emirates, in October.
But PSG have improved dramatically since then, in large part because Enrique’s decision to drop Ousmane Dembele against Arsenal for disciplinary reasons has inspired the France forward’s superb run of form.
While Arteta and Luis Enrique are sure to share a private moment together after the tie, they will put their friendship on hold to focus on finally delivering Champions League glory to their clubs.
Arsenal have never won the tournament, losing to Barcelona in the 2006 final, while PSG have a tortured recent history, beaten by Bayern Munich in their only final in 2020.
Securing the European Holy Grail would make Arteta immortal in north London and banish any questions about his ability to win major trophies. The Gunners have gone five years without silverware since Arteta won the only prize of his reign in the FA Cup.
Arsenal head into the PSG tie emboldened by their swaggering 5-1 aggregate dismissal of holders Real Madrid in the quarter-finals.
