Category: UEFA Champions League

In the runup to the Champions League final, the Arsenal manager’s first footballing steps in the Basque Country and Barcelona are recalled by those who shared them

The way Santi Cazorla tells it, rolling about laughing, Mikel Arteta may just be the worst person you could ever wish to watch a match with. Which is why he knew his friend would be a coach and why he told him to go away and become one, convinced great things were coming. “When we were injured at Arsenal, we used to meet at home for games, and he would grab the remote and pause it,” Cazorla recalls. “I would say: ‘What are you stopping it for?’ He would say: ‘No, go back, go back,’ rewind it 30 seconds, and then ask: ‘What do you see?’ I would say: ‘I see a paused screen. I don’t see anything!’”

So Arteta would explain. “‘Don’t you think this player is badly positioned? … If he goes a bit deeper, this space opens up … if the pivot goes there, this happens … that line should be deeper …’ I would look at him and think: ‘What’s with this guy?’” Cazorla continues, still cracking up. “He was a coach already. All game, every game: pausing, rewinding. The match is finished and we’re only in the 35th minute. ‘Do you see it?’ ‘Yes, yes, you’re right, now come on, press play.’ But I didn’t see it. I love football, I can watch it all day, but I don’t notice those things. Mikel does. I think it’s a gift.”

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⚽ News and previews before big weekend of football
⚽ Arsenal owners promise to strengthen | Mail John

The aforementioned Qatar played Ireland last night in Dublin, and lost 1-0.

The game was played against the backdrop of mounting controversy over Ireland’s forthcoming Nations League fixtures against Israel, with the game scheduled for October 4 in Dublin a particular focus, and protesters hurled tennis balls bearing the message “stop the game” onto the pitch on several occasions during the first half.

The 22-year will make a shock switch of allegiance from Italy to Australia four years after turning down the opportunity to represent the country of his birth at the tournament in Qatar.

Football Australia is still awaiting confirmation from Fifa that the formalities surrounding Volpato’s change of heart can be completed before Socceroos coach Tony Popovic names his 26-player World Cup squad by 1 June.

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Arsenal striker scored the winner in the final five years ago and is determined to make up for being ‘in a bad place’ when injured this season

When Kai Havertz thinks back to the 2021 Champions League final, he can’t help smiling. Chelsea’s surprise victory over Manchester City in Porto still feels like yesterday for the Germany striker.

“It is something I will never forget,” he says. “As a kid I could have never dreamed I would score a goal in the final and win that game. I will always be proud of it. I just try to take that feeling and hopefully it will happen again.”

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• Josh Kroenke says there will be no ‘standing still’

• Extending Mikel Arteta’s contract the ‘utmost priority’

Josh Kroenke has promised that ­Arsenal will strengthen their squad even if they are crowned European champions for the first time and said rewarding Mikel Arteta with a new contract is an “utmost priority”.

Arsenal, who face Paris Saint-­Germain in the Champions League final in Budapest on Saturday, spent more than £250m last summer on players who helped them win a first Premier League title for 22 years. Kroenke and his father, Stan, the club’s ­American owners and co-chairs, watched ­Arsenal at Crystal Palace on Sunday and brought the trophy on to the pitch before it was presented to the captain, Martin ­Ødegaard. They are expected to be at the final.

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Jurriën Timber’s likely unavailability means a reshuffle that will affect selections in all areas of the side

It would be easy to look at Saturday’s Champions League final between Paris Saint-Germain and Arsenal and see it as a battle of attack versus defence, of beauty against pragmatism, of French elan against English doughtiness, as some sort of tussle for the soul of football. But it would not entirely be true. And where, after all, was the honour at Agincourt? In the vainglorious charges of the dashing French cavalry or the stoic defiance of the British archers arrayed, naked from the waist down, behind their defensive stakes?

On the one hand, the stats look stark. In the Champions League this season, Paris Saint-Germain have averaged 63.4% possession, higher than anybody apart from Barcelona; Arsenal’s figure is 52.6%, the 11th-highest of the 36 sides who made the league stage. PSG’s pass completion has been 89.3% to Arsenal’s 85.7% (third-highest to 14th-highest). PSG have scored 44 goals to Arsenal’s 29. But on the flip side, Arsenal have conceded six goals to PSG’s 22 and won 13.4 aerial duels per game to PSG’s 9.4 (sixth-highest to 29th-highest).

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• Arsenal manager weighing up options at right-back

• ‘We’re going to try to get him available as quickly as possible’

Mikel Arteta is crossing his fingers that Jurriën Timber will have a chance of facing Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League final as he weighs up his options at right-back.

Arsenal confirmed on Tuesday that Ben White would miss the rest of the season with a knee injury that is expected to rule him out of the World Cup, although Arteta said the defender must “wait and see” regarding the summer. Timber has not played since Arsenal’s win over Everton on 14 March owing to a groin issue. The Netherlands defender is understood to have been close to returning at the end of last month before experiencing a setback.

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Keeping Ousmane Dembélé quiet will be tough but Mikel Arteta’s side have tools to disrupt defending champions

There is no better player to watch in world football right now than Kvicha Kvaratskhelia, who manages to blend an unorthodox style with the decisive certainty of a winner. At times he was unplayable over the two legs of the semi-final with Bayern Munich and he would have crowned his showreel if, after a dazzling spin and run late in the second leg, he had beaten Manuel Neuer. Arsenal need a plan to deal with the Georgian, who brutally exposed Konrad Laimer and Dayot Upamecano in Munich. He left them both floundering when setting up Ousmane Dembélé’s goal and Arsenal’s one-on-one defending must be immaculate.

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The state-owned football team it’s OK to like (and proof that sportswashing works), Paris Saint-Germain booked their place in Bigger Cup final courtesy of a draw against Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena. Like Shaun Murphy in Monday’s night’s thrilling denouement of the World Snooker Championship at the Crucible Theatre, the German champions didn’t do a great deal wrong and were similarly gracious in defeat despite their obvious disappointment. “The level of both teams was very, very high,” sighed Vincent Kompany as he ruminated on his team’s exit. “PSG have so much quality, they’ve probably been the best team in Europe in the last two years.” A team that is currently so good it was forced to replace deadweight no-marks such as Kylian Mbappé, Lionel Messi and Neymar to finally shed their tag as Bigger Cup nearlymen and bottlers, the willingness of their replacements to do the dirty work of defending played no small part in helping PSG get over the line.

Doing some half-hearted/@rsed research of potential Bigger Vase finalists, Braga, I drifted into a section about the city’s famous old inhabitants. One of these was a 16th-century skeptic philosopher called Francisco Sanches, who claimed that nobody knows anything, particularly those who say they do. With a European campaign – that was helmed, briefly, by both Big Ange and Sean Dyche (et al) – potentially ending in an unlikely final, Forest seem to have proved old Fran-San’s point” – Andrew Boulton.

It’s interesting that Declan Rice thinks that Arsenal’s achievements can’t be underestimated (yesterday’s Football Daily). The only things that can’t be underestimated are things that are extremely small. Anything large can easily be underestimated” – Bob Cushion (and others).

Maybe Chester and Wrexham (yesterday’s Football Daily, full email edition) could go down the Forest/Derby route and rename the A483 to ‘Phil Parkinson Way’?” – Jim Hearson.

Am I the only one who saw this fine picture of Pep Guardiola and Jordan Pickford at the Hill Dickinson Stadium on Monday night and thought: ‘All this really needs is the addition of an ‘I’ and an ‘S’ to be perfect?’” – Adam Sherlock.

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The teams for the final in Budapest are set. We look at how they got there and the factors that could determine the champion

Destination Budapest, where Paris Saint-Germain will attempt to be the first club apart from Real Madrid to win two consecutive European Cups since Milan in 1990. Vincent Kompany’s promise of “more” from Bayern Munich after a nine-goal first leg did not materialise. PSG offered a different proposition in Wednesday’s second leg; they put on a performance of defensive discipline, with their attacking players committed to closing down their opponents. Luis Enrique’s team never allowed the tie to spin from their control even if there were 33 shots in Munich compared to 22 in Paris.

Khvicha Kvaratskhelia plays like an old-style winger, and set up Ousmane Dembélé’s goal, but he is also thoroughly modern in the way he presses hard and high. Bayern found space at a premium until Harry Kane’s late goal. Luis Enrique’s team is much the same as last season’s, sticking to the same formula. They are a year older but still flush with youth. The PSG project took many years and billions of euros to hit pay dirt but is now delivering the success that was dreamed of after the Qatari takeover in 2011.

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Khvicha Kvaratskhelia’s trickery and imagination gave Konrad Laimer a torrid time in Munich. Arsenal, beware

Well, it was never going to be quite the same. You only get one all-time high, one first kiss, one Catcher in the Rye, one loved-up alien-ball dreamscape of a game like the first leg between these two teams.

In the event Bayern Munich never really laid a glove on Paris Saint-Germain at the Allianz Arena. They trailed from the third minute to Ousmane Dembélé’s goal, drew level on the night through Harry Kane at the death, but looked in between like a team trying to generate energy from a standing start, always kept at one remove by the extended arm, the palm on their forehead, fists whirling in the empty air between.

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Ousmane Dembele’s early goal sent PSG through to meet Arsenal despite a late cracker from Harry Kane

“I’m a little bored with the hyperbole over the first leg,” writes Jose Mou- Tim Smith. “It’s like regular football folk have lost the run of themselves. So, I predict a dull, cagey, 0-1 with a late goal. Of course, I’ll probably be proven wrong within five minutes of kick off.”

“Evening Rob,” begins Andy Gordon. “As Scott’s MBM last week gave us nine goals and all-time classic, if tonight doesn’t meet expectations do we email you with complaints/refund requests?”

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In the space of a week the mood has changed, with positive energy replacing suffering, and two trophies are suddenly within reach

It was a soundbite designed to go viral, the kind the ex-pros in the TV studios are always looking to confect; snappy, heavy on hyperbole, bang in the moment. Thierry Henry made it pop on Tuesday night as he interviewed Bukayo Saka on CBS Sports after Arsenal had beaten Atlético Madrid to advance to the Champions League final. “We were the Invincibles. You will be the Unforgettables,” Henry said.

There it was, as laid out by one of the greats, the goalscoring hero of Arsenal’s unbeaten bolt to the 2004 Premier League title, the last one they won.

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• Winger insists side can overcome PSG or Bayern

• Ødegaard takes ‘massive confidence’ from semi-final

Arsenal will travel to Budapest for the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich with no trace of an inferiority complex, according to Leandro Trossard, who knows that anything is possible in a one-off game.

The Arsenal winger and his teammates drank in the euphoria after Tuesday night’s 1-0 home win over Atlético Madrid in the semi-final second-leg for a 2-1 aggregate triumph, savouring the achievement and the sense of history. Arsenal have only contested one previous final in the competition, losing to Barcelona in 2006.

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Arsenal are in the Budapest final thanks to Bukayo Saka’s first-half goal

Pennant Watch. There’s nothing wrong, in and of itself, with the commemorative gift stand-in captain Bukayo Saka will hand over to his opposite number Koke. But that badge. Come on, man. Stand it next to the time-honoured Victoria Concodria Crescit crest and weep. And that’s before we get to the stratospherically sexy Art Deco A-football-C logo. Ever since that fateful rebrand, Herbert Chapman has been spinning elegantly in his grave, nearly a quarter of a style-free century on.

Atletico Madrid’s offering, however, is a thing of timeless beauty. Enrique Collar would have been proud to hand that over. Arsenal are favourites to go through tonight, but they’ve lost this very important pre-match skirmish.

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