So, Will It Be Barca, Or The Scousers?
Mar 13th, 2008 by 'holic
For once I don’t need to spend my Thursday night doing the preview of the weekend match. It will be good to see the Friday lunchtime press conferences before casting a critical eye over Saturday’s contest.
A preview is required, nonetheless. The other Friday lunchtime newsmaker will be the draw for the quarter-finals and semi-finals of the Champions League. Who do you fancy?
I know most are holding their hands up for Schalke, some for Fenerbahce. Let me tell you something. I went to Fenerbahce nearly thirty years ago with Arsenal, and it was not a holiday!
I have to be honest, I want Barcelona. “You must be barking’, I hear you say. Not at all. I want to meet them and beat them soon to exorcise the demons from a couple of years ago. With Lionel Messi out for a few weeks this would be a good time to draw them. Ronaldhino and Henry would normally scare the living daylights out of you, but neither are firing on all cylinders at present.
Not forgetting the fact that we just tend to do better against the bigger name sides. Real Madrid? AC Milan? Juventus? Pah, We’ve done ’em!
Believers in fate have worked out that in between the two quarter-final dates we are scheduled to face Liverpool in the Premier League. I’m persuaded that this particular draw is more than a possibility. Let’s face it, nobody will be surprised to see two English sides paired at this stage. Indeed it is mathematically likely, quite apart from the fact that UEFA will not want all four English clubs in the semi-finals.
So my preference for our half of the draw would be for Barcelona v Arsenal, and Roma v Schalke. Let the other four sort themselves out any way they want. I really wouldn’t mind facing Fenerbahce in Moscow!
No Arsenal TV On Virgin Media Today
Thanks to everybody who has written with the differing stories they are being told by the Virgin Media people about the availability in the UK of Arsenal TV.
More than one person was told today (Thursday) was a possibility, although a couple were told ‘either this Thursday or next’.
Well it wasn’t today!
I just do not for the life of me understand why they are being so secretive if the decision has been taken to launch. For goodness sake tell us it is next Thursday, or March 31st, or whenever it is. Quite frankly we are sick to the back teeth with the twelfth of never!
10 Responses to “So, Will It Be Barca, Or The Scousers?”
we all know it will be one of the english teams and that will mean playing them 3 times in the space of a few weeks no matter who it is we play chelski on 23rd and utd on 12th i think it will be utd.and that will mean me buying no papers and turning of sky etc.. as the shit coming out from utd and red nose will just get on my nerves and then they will leave the boot in when the match arrives and dont forget we will get another injury crisis,when is the last time we had a full squad v utd or chelski
I agree with you ‘holic. I would prefer to play Barca now as we do seem to be at our best against top class opposition. I really do not fancy us having to play one of our top 4 rivals 3 times before the end of the season, not because I fear them, but because it will be difficult for the team to raise themselves against the same opponents so many times in such a short space of time. We do not have the luxury to rotate to the extent that Rafa will, as Liverpool really only have a chance to win the CL. Chelsea and Man U have larger squads to fall back on, although the quality of our first choice XI is still better in my opinion. We just need to pray all our key players get and stay fit for the rest of the season, then we have as much of a chance as anyone else.
There is an inevitabality that we will meet Barcelona and knock them out, not that for revenge but also for Henry just as we did to Vieira. We may not meet them this round but definately ARSENAL WILL KNOCK THEM OUT OF THE CHAMPIONS LEAGUE!!!!!
Dont think Barca will be easy Gooners….sure you knocked out Milan and played well against but all you had to worry about up front was the still new and prodigy Pato & deal with the great threat of Kaka……Barca will not be a walk in the park even without Messi.
I would luv Arsenal to take on Barca and see what the outcome would me…..although I have to say id prefer to take you on when Messi is back to full health in the Semis….but we can still beat you over 2 legs without him
The only really tough opponents you had to deal with this year yet were Sevilla……come to Barca and we will show you how to play football 😀
Well said,holic!i am quite agree with you!but i came to realize that do our squad are at the best lever?are they really strong enough to beat any big teams now?are the players all heathy till the end of the season?probably not.don t foqget without ade’s scoring,what place we ‘re getting now?in my point of view,of cause we should make a hit in the euro,but we also should attract the attention on the pre,or we will get nothing .well,rvp’s back is a good news,aw should think about it,sign someone in the summer.come on gunners!!
Braca Fan
To start with I dont think yout team is as strong as people say, ok you have a line up full of stars and world top notch players but I don’t think you have what it takes to win CL. AC Milan is full of world class players and we knocked them out because we dominated them in both games we had our advantage shown in two games and we won simple as that. Kaka did not casue us any major problems and we held well with each attack. We had the chances and we have shown what we’re made of!
Holic good post yet again and I want Barca as well we can beat them without a doubt.
Astroangel
Keep the faith my man you seem to be loosing it and give me an impression you doubt the players we have uhmm….
You can not compare league games to CL games full stop we have responed much better on CL front and I believe and trust Arsene and our players to well in this competition. I say bring on Barca and lets show Henry what Arsenal is all about!
It has now been confirmed Arsenal TV kicks off on Virgin Media. It will be available from Tuesday 18th March.
http://tinyurl.com/2nxvpu
I’ve just added this same news on the Virgin story posted a couple of days ago, but Arsenal and Virgin have announced Arsenal TV will start broadcasting on Virgin TV on Tuesday March 18th.
Better late than never!
i wonder if it will be free on all you cable boxes on virgin because on sky you have to pay extra to have it on more than one box (£5 more for each one)
On Virgin’s press release it confirms the channel will be 542.
http://tinyurl.com/2jr6be