Arsenal visit Leverkusen aiming to seize advantage before home leg | OneFootball

Mikel Arteta's team, the Premier League leader, will play this Wednesday at the BayArena with the aim of setting the course in the round of 16 series against the German team.

Arsenal will visit Bayer Leverkusen this Wednesday at the BayArena, in the first leg of the UEFA Champions League round of 16. The team led by Mikel Arteta, leader of the Premier League, will look to start the series with a victory that brings them closer to the quarter-finals.

The London team is going through a great moment and maintains its aspirations intact in four competitions: the Premier League, the Champions League, the FA Cup, and the EFL Cup, whose final they will play on March 22 against Manchester City led by Pep Guardiola.

Before the match, Arteta emphasized his team's ambition, though with caution: “I prepare as best as I can for everything and try to inspire my players. In football, you have to prove things every day”. For this match, the coach will have William Saliba back, who has recovered from his injury and will return to the starting lineup.

Additionally, Martín Zubimendi, Gabriel Magalhães, and Declan Rice will return to the initial team, having been rested in the 2-1 victory against Mansfield Town in the FA Cup round of 16. The main absence will be Martin Ødegaard, while Leandro Trossard and Riccardo Calafiori remain doubtful.

The match will also have a special element for Kai Havertz and Piero Hincapié, Arsenal players who will face their former team, Bayer Leverkusen. Additionally, the English team already knows its next opponent in the FA Cup, where they will face Southampton in the quarter-finals.

For their part, Leverkusen arrives with an irregular present in the Bundesliga, where they are in sixth place and recently drew 3-3 against SC Freiburg. Despite this, their coach Kasper Hjulmand expressed confidence ahead of the European clash.

“Arsenal is the big favorite and perhaps the best team in Europe at the moment, but we have already played very well against great teams. In football, anything is possible. We are among the best 16 and we have to enjoy it with our fans”, said the coach of the German team.

This article was translated into English by Artificial Intelligence. You can read the original version in 🇪🇸 here.