{"id":13005,"date":"2026-03-10T22:28:38","date_gmt":"2026-03-10T22:28:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13005"},"modified":"2026-03-12T05:28:52","modified_gmt":"2026-03-12T05:28:52","slug":"back-on-the-european-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=13005","title":{"rendered":"Back on the European Road"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Arsenal\u2019s push for an unprecedented quadruple, as well as our first ever Champions League, will face its latest obstacle in the shape of Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Wednesday. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It will be our first competitive meeting with Leverkusen since a 4-1 triumph in 2002. Remarkably, Leverkusen went onto reach the Champions League final that season, losing 2-1 to Real Madrid in Glasgow. That was a campaign of three incredible near misses for Leverkusen. First, they threw away the Bundesliga title on the final day of the season, then lost the DFB Pokal final (German Cup) and lastly, experienced that painful night in Glasgow. This hat-trick of silver medals earnt Bayer the tag of \u201cNeverkusen\u201d courtesy of the German press. Ouch!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They failed to shake off that unwanted tag until the 2023\/24 campaign in which Xabi Alonso masterminded a remarkable invincible double as Bayer completed an entire Bundesliga season without losing, as well as winning the DFB Pokal. It would have been an invincible treble had they not lost the Europa League final to Atalanta in the final game of their season but all the same, it was a remarkable feat. Of course, it\u2019s not quite as impressive as our own invincible campaign as the Bundesliga only has 18 teams which means 34 games, four less than the Premier League. We of course extended our unbeaten run to 49 games. But I suppose not everybody can be as great as The Arsenal. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Remarkably, that was Leverkusen\u2019s first ever league title. They are not the most popular club in Germany as they are owned by the pharmaceutical company, Bayer Pharmaceuticals. I am not entirely sure why this is so frowned upon by many Germans. As far as I can tell, there is no state funding going on and all their finances are above board. I think it is fair to say there are much bigger enemies in German football. No prizes for guessing which club I\u2019m referring to here!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In terms of links between the two clubs, two of our players will return to their former stomping ground. Firstly, Kai Havertz came through the ranks in the Leverkusen academy, making a big impact on the first team as a youngster and was coveted by a host of Europe\u2019s top clubs before his move to Chelsea in 2020. It is believed that Arteta expressed significant interest in Kai before his move to Chelsea. Given that he eventually left for around \u00a380 million, you can only assume we were priced out of a move at the time due to our financial position at that time. Arteta got his man in the end, as he so often has done. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other is of course, Piero Hincapi\u00e9, who is still technically a Bayer Leverkusen player given he joined us on loan, but we all know the permanence of that move is a formality. Due to UEFA regulations differing from those of the Premier League\u2019s, Hincapi\u00e9 will be eligible to face his parent club. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Regarding team news, it has been reported that Saliba and Ben White were both in training and should hopefully be available for selection. We will see a strong team with the hope of securing a big enough victory to be able to rest a number of key players for the second leg ahead of next Sunday\u2019s cup final. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think we will see a team something like this;<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Raya<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Timber Saliba Gabriel Hincapie<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Zubimendi Eze Rice<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Saka Gy\u00f6keres Martinelli<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I think we will win relatively comfortably given Leverkusen currently sit sixth in the Bundesliga and have lost so many key players since their title win two years ago. I\u2019ll go for a 3-0 away win.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

COYG<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Arsenal\u2019s push for an unprecedented quadruple, as well as our first ever Champions League, will face its latest obstacle in the shape of Bayer 04 Leverkusen on Wednesday.  It will be our first competitive meeting with Leverkusen since a 4-1 triumph in 2002. Remarkably, Leverkusen went onto reach the Champions League final that season, losing […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[24,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13005"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13005\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13018,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13005\/revisions\/13018"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}