{"id":2392,"date":"2021-02-18T03:27:24","date_gmt":"2021-02-18T03:27:24","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2392"},"modified":"2021-02-27T17:46:06","modified_gmt":"2021-02-27T17:46:06","slug":"tiber-tour-to-hike-gunners-hopes-in-hellas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/?p=2392","title":{"rendered":"Tiber Tour to Hike Gunners Hopes in Hellas?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Europa League round of 32, first leg; Thursday 18 February, 14:00; Venue: Stadio Ol\u00edmpico, Rome<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Nearly a year to the day since Arsenal faced Olympiakos in the first, away leg of the Europa League round of 32 in a tie that ended disastrously for the Gunners, Mikel Arteta\u2019s side travel to Italy rather than Portugal to face Benfica in the first leg and same round of this year\u2019s tournament that has been modified by the effects of Covid-19 more than one year into the pandemic.  Two weeks after last year\u2019s home tie with Olympiakos, after Mikel Arteta was diagnosed positive for the virus, European football began to close up shop for a few months as the pandemic raged.  With the pandemic still going on in a different form, it\u2019s odd the way this year\u2019s tournament sets up, but is a unique turn of events to be sure. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The UK\u2019s stricter Covid-19 travel restrictions announced two weeks ago forced both legs of the tie to be moved to neutral venues.  This first leg was scheduled to be contested in Lisbon but after Portugal found its way onto the UK\u2019s \u2018red list\u2019 returning travelers to the UK were required to quarantine for 10 days, which would have prevented Arsenal from playing the home league fixture against Manchester City three days later, the return leg with Benfica on the 25th, and the away fixture at Leicester on the 28th.  But both legs now having been rescheduled, Arsenal\u2019s travel schedule through next week will take them to Rome, London, Piraeus (the home of Olympiakos and, coincidentally, Arsenal\u2019s \u201chome\u201d venue for the return leg) and Leicester, of course. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Between these two clubs, Benfica and Arsenal have reached five UEFA Cup and Europa League finals but lost them all.  Benfica were runners-up in the 1983 UEFA Cup and the 2013 and 2014 Europa League, while Arsenal were losing finalists in the 2000 UEFA Cup and 2019 Europa League.  These two clubs were paired just one prior time in Europe, when Sven G\u00f6ran Eriksson’s Benfica bested George Graham’s Gunners in a 1991\/92 European Cup second round tie with a 3-1 extra time comeback win in London after a 1-1 first leg draw in Lisbon, so we are hoping to turn over a new leaf this time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benfica came through their group stage undefeated with three wins and three draws, but they finished second behind Rangers.  Arsenal finished first in their group, winning all their games and scoring 20 goals, the most ever by an English team in the Europa League group stage.  This last factoid is a bit of an irony considering the domestic difficulty Arsenal have had with scoring goals.  Hopefully the four goals Arsenal scored on Sunday are a harbinger of things to come, especially as Arsenal loaned out Europa League specialist Joe Willock, their joint top marksman in this competition with Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9 and Eddie Nketiah who have scored three goals each.

Benfica are the more successful of the two sides historically in European competition, and were Europa League runners-up in 2013 to Chelsea, and in 2014 to Sevilla.  It\u2019s a neutral venue this time, but Benfica have never lost a home leg in the Europa League \u2013 a record run of 26 matches including 21 victories.  In the knockout phase their 19 matches have yielded 15 wins and four draws, but I mention this for informational purposes not to strike fear in anyone\u2019s heart.


The opposition<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among Benfica\u2019s familiar faces are Jan Vertonghen who spent eight years with Tottenham before joining Benfica last summer, fellow defensive recruit Nicol\u00e1s Otamendi who played five seasons at Manchester City, and midfielder Adel Taarabt who spent time at Tottenham, QPR and Fulham.  Benfica midfielder Pizzi is the Europa League\u2019s joint leading scorer this season with six goals, one more than team-mate Darwin Nu\u00f1ez who has five.  Arsenal will be hoping Benfica\u2019s central defence is a bit weaker than it was last season when it was anchored by Ruben Dias who moved to Manchester City in the off-season and has played a major role in City\u2019s defensive improvement and title challenge.

Covid-19 made it difficult for Benfica to field a starting XI in late January but the crisis seems to have abated since then.  First choice goalkeeper Odysseas was forced out of the team on the 25th by Covid-related issues, but has kept seven clean sheets overall.  Otamendi also missed the game that day due to Covid, as did Vertonghen and midfielder \u00c9verton, who has scored three goals and assisted on five others. As of Sunday evening Benfica sat fourth in the Portuguese league table, 10 points behind leaders and intra-city rivals Sporting CP.  Between the two legs, while Arsenal host Manchester City, Benfica will play an away league fixture in southern Portugal against minnows Farense.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Two Arsenal defenders have interesting ties to current Benfica boss Jorge Jesus.  David Luiz was a Benfica player from 2007 to 2011, when he made 132 appearances and won the Portuguese league once under Jesus who was in the first of his two stints as club manager.  Pablo Mar\u00ed was also coached by Jesus at Flamengo in 2019 when they won the Brazilian S\u00e9rie A title and the Copa Libertadores.  Jesus\u2019 second stint at Benfica began last August.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Arsenal XI<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Seeing as Alexandre Lacazette and Nicolas P\u00e9p\u00e9 were rested for the entire match on Sunday I presume they will be two of the featured starters in the Gunners\u2019 front line.  The same may be the case for Rob Holding in central defence but as Portuguese nationals, Luiz and Cedric may have some useful knowledge of Benfica\u2019s approach so Arteta could include them in the team as well.  With the exception of Alex Lacazette who was rested, my other predicted starters earned their stripes against Leeds, so not to overlook Martin \u00d8degaard whose fine contribution at the weekend probably earned him the right to feature at some point, the team may line up with some variation of these players and positional selections:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leno<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bellerin — Luiz — Gabriel — Cedric<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Ceballos — Xhaka<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Smith Rowe<\/p>\n\n\n\n

P\u00e9p\u00e9 — Lacazette — Aubameyang<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The holics\u2019 pound<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

No matter Rome being a neutral venue, I expect it may still have the feel of a true away leg so Arsenal will do well if they can match Benfica\u2019s goal output, and better still if they can notch an away goal or two.  After last year\u2019s disappointment and the added incentive to use Europa League success to compensate for our still being a mid-table team domestically, I will predict a 1-1 draw in the first leg, with the expectation that such a result will put Arsenal in a position to take full advantage at Piraeus in one week\u2019s time and march on to the next round.  After the excellent debate in the last drinks about whether Arsenal should prioritise the Europa League or the Premier League I thought we didn\u2019t have to only prioritise only one of them, so looking back have to agree with the comments by \u2018desi\u2019gooner at #36:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We could take a further nuanced call on this based on the away leg and the home leg. The team has come off an 8 day gap between two games before the Leeds game. The first leg against Benfica is the away leg and I personally think that we should play the same eleven (or maybe maximum one change with Pepe coming in for ESR or Odegaard) and throw the kitchen sink at it for the first 60-65 mins and score 2-3 away goals and shut up shop after that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I like that thinking and that positivity, especially since the Europa League is our best hope to do something positive with the remainder of our season, so a big performance in the Benfica tie will lift the mood all around the club. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Come on you Gunners, and enjoy the game all.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Nearly a year to the day since Arsenal faced Olympiakos in the first, away leg of the Europa League round of 32 in a tie that ended disastrously for the Gunners, Mikel Arteta\u2019s side travel to Italy rather than Portugal to face Benfica in the first leg and same round of this year\u2019s tournament that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":2391,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392"}],"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\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2392"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2400,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2392\/revisions\/2400"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2391"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2392"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2392"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2392"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}