Category: UEFA Competitions

Two majestic free-kicks from Declan Rice, the first of his professional career, inspired a stunning first-leg victory

It’s been a season of incessant frustration for Arsenal. Yet it could end with them winning the European Cup for the first time. Right now, in this exhilarating, occasionally bowel-loosening window just before kick-off, anything is possible. And nights like this don’t come along very often: it’s only Arsenal’s second Champions League quarter-final in the last 15 years.

This is great fun: Sean Ingle’s minute-by-minute report of Arsenal’s win in the Bernabeu 19 years ago.

47 min - GOAL! Real Madrid 0 - 1 Arsenal Brilliant from Thierry Henry! Absolutely brilliant! From just over the half-way line he turns past Ronaldo and ghosts past three Real defenders before coolly sliding it into the far corner from 15 yards. Superb.

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• Goalkeeper reveals side have trained to deal with them
• ‘The first thing is not to concede too many corners’

Thibaut Courtois has revealed that Real Madrid are wary of Arsenal’s prowess from set pieces and have been preparing specifically for the challenge of facing them.

The reigning European champions come into Tuesday’s first leg of their Champions League quarter-final at the Emirates following a 2-1 home defeat by Valencia in La Liga that left them four points behind leaders Barcelona. A poor defensive performance saw Madrid concede their 10th goal from a corner this season, although Carlo Ancelotti will welcome back Courtois and David Alaba from injury against Mikel Arteta’s side.

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• Winger ‘focused on coming back stronger’ after injury
• Arteta says quarter-final biggest game of coaching career

Bukayo Saka has said he feels mentally refreshed after missing three months through injury and believes Arsenal are ready to “write our own story” against Real Madrid in their Champions League quarter-final.

Saka is expected to start against Madrid on Tuesday in the first leg for the first time since rupturing a hamstring in December, having come on in the past two matches. The Arsenal manager, Mikel Arteta, said having the 23-year-old back for what he described as the biggest game of his coaching career was a massive boost as his team attempt to overcome the reigning champions.

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Paris Saint-Germain, who beat Liverpool with verve and energy, are the upstart newcomers among big-name quarter-finalists

Narratives are never as straightforward as they may appear. One era does not yield easily to another. What constitutes an era changes over time. While history is happening it’s often hard to make sense of it; patterns seem to emerge that, from the perspective of 20 years later are meaningless, or culs-de-sac. That seems particularly true this season. As the Champions League reaches its quarter-final stage this coming week, it feels that one age has ended and another has yet to materialise.

The past was a simpler place. First there was the age of dominance by Real Madrid and Benfica, teams from the capitals of Iberian nations under right-wing dictatorships, packed with great individuals. Then came systematisation, catenaccio and the Italian ascendancy, followed, with a brief period of crossover, by the era of domination by the northern European industrial powers, skipping swiftly over Celtic and Manchester United to the Dutch and Total Football and then Bayern Munich. Then came the long period of English superiority before the Heysel ban, after which everything gets more complicated.

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• Real Madrid players face inquiry for Atlético celebrations
• Rüdiger and Ceballos also under the spotlight

Uefa has opened an investigation into a possible breach of disciplinary regulations by several Real Madrid players at the end of their recent Champions League match at Atlético Madrid. The inquiry centres on allegations of improper conduct by Kylian Mbappé, Vinícius Júnior, Dani Ceballos and Antonio Rüdiger, Uefa revealed on Thursday.

Real Madrid face Arsenal in the quarter-finals of the competition on 8 and 16 April. If Uefa’s investigation results in player suspensions, they are likely to affect their availability for that tie.

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• ‘It’s not the first time he’s said that’
• Capello said Guardiola ruined Italian football

Pep Guardiola has responded sarcastically to Fabio Capello’s claim that he is arrogant, has “ruined Italian football” and has made the sport boring. The former England coach offered his view of Guardiola to the Spanish newspaper El Mundo this week. On Friday Manchester City’s manager was asked whether he listened to someone of the Italian’s stature in the game.

“I listen to everything that people say about me. Everything. So be careful. I am controlling you,” he said as a joke. “It’s not the first time that Mr Fabio Capello said that. I’m not good enough to win Italian football. Italian football is much, much more important than the way you do it. A big hug from Fabio. A big hug.”

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• ‘We can compete against the best in the world’
• Midfielder excited at prospect of facing PSG

Not so long ago, John McGinn presumed a detour to the Paris Saint-Germain club shop on a family holiday as a kid, getting kitted out en route to Disneyland, would be the closest he got to playing at the Parc des Princes. Unai Emery is a former PSG manager, Marco Asensio is on loan from the Ligue 1 club, but McGinn’s ties are more modest, if not tenuous.

“The only place I’ve been there is the shop,” he says, smiling. “We were in a big campervan and stopped off in Paris. I think I was about seven or eight … I remember getting a PSG strip.”

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