Tuesday’s Champions League Preview
Gavin Hamilton and Jon Driscoll look ahead to what could be a dramatic night in the second legs of the Champions League round of 16…
Arsenal v Porto (Agg 0-1) with Gavin Hamilton
Arsenal against Porto is finally balanced with Porto’s late, late winner in Portugal separating the two sides. The Gunners have enough to come through this, even though you get the feeling they were happy with the goalless draw and were preparing themselves mentally for what they needed to do back in London then got caught.
They’ve been tearing teams apart in the league but it could be tricky against a Porto side who will try to frustrate the Gunners. They have that lead to protect and it could get very tough at times for Arsenal. The full set of tricks will come out. There’ll be fouls, bookings and plenty of disruptions and while that is a concern I think Arsenal will come through that. Just.
I can see Arsenal winning the game by the odd goal and that means extra time, but they've got enough in their locker to come through it with a late winner.
Barcelona v Napoli (Agg 1-1) with Jon Driscoll
Napoli have a real chance to progress here. It’s not the Camp Nou, it’s the far less intimidating Montjuic where there’s a real sense of dissatisfaction among fans with what's happened to the club in recent years and they haven't really rallied round. The first game wasn't great, obviously the two champions of these two countries, but they're not playing like champions at the moment. The big guns scored in Levandowski and Osimhen, and Barca have kept 3 clean sheets since that game.
I think it's going to be fairly close and from the prices I’ve seen the price on Napoli to Qualify is huge value. Close, not a classic and one the Italian champions can qualify from.