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Real Madrid lost at home to Valencia on Saturday and are four points behind Barcelona with eight games to go, but Carlo Ancelotti is calm. Calmer than you are.
Bukayo Saka, who starts his first game in almost four months, is ready and raring
I think mentally [the enforced break] was really good for me. It was really tough initially to find out the extent of my injury, that I was going to have to have surgery … But once it was done and it was successful, I was just focused on coming back stronger and had a lot of time.
Obviously the past five years I’ve been playing game after game, so it was the first proper break I’ve had and it was really good for me. I got to do a lot of things that I don’t really normally do. I can give you many, many examples, but you will get bored. It’s really nice to be back and I feel fresh mentally for sure.
Tonight’s other Champions League game is a repeat of the 2010 final: Bayern Munich v Internazionale. Niall McVeigh is covering that one.
Team news: Saka starts
Bukayo Saka starts for the first time in 2025. That’s the big news, in part because both teams are largely as expected. Jakub Kiwior, who played at well at Everton on Saturday, is Mikel Arteta’s preferred replacement for the injured Gabriel Magalhaes. Mikel Merino will start up front.
Real Madrid have a couple of changes from the second leg of their win over Atletico in the last 16. David Alaba replaces the injured Ferland Mendy at left-back; Eduardo Camavinga comes in for the suspended Aurelien Tchouameni.
Arsenal (4-3-3ish) Raya; Timber, Saliba, Kiwior, Lewis-Skelly; Odegaard, Partey, Rice; Saka, Merino, Martinelli.
Substitutes: Neto, Setford, Tierney, White, Zinchenko, Trossard, Jorginho, Butler-Oyedeji, Gower, Nwaneri.
Real Madrid (4-3-3ish) Courtois; Valverde, Asensio, Rudiger, Alaba; Modric, Camavinga, Bellingham; Rodrygo, Mbappe, Vinicius Jr.
Substitutes: Fran Gonzalez, Sergio Mestre, Arda Guler, Endrick, Lucas Vazquez, Vallejo, Fran Garcia, Brahim, Gonzalo, Jacobo, Chema, Lorenzo.
Referee Irfan Peljto (Bosnia and Herzegovina).
Real Madrid have faced 141 different teams in European competition. Only four are unbeaten against them: Ipswich Town, Aberdeen, Lille – and Arsenal, who beat Real 1-0 on aggregate in the only previous meeting between the sides. That was in the last 16 in 2005-06, when Thierry Henry’s majestic solo goal was enough to see off the ageing, ailing galacticos.
Preamble
Hello and welcome to live coverage of Arsenal v Real Madrid at the Emirates. It’s the first leg of a mouthmoistening quarter-final between the best team never to win the European Cup (probably) and the team that has won it the most (definitely).
That imbalance gives this game a slightly strange feel – part Clash of the Titans, part David vs Goliath. Madrid are strongish favourites to win the tie but Arsenal have more than enough ability to make life uncomfortable for them, particularly in front of a feral Emirates crowd tonight.
Arsenal surely need to take a lead to Madrid, ideally two goals or more. They can’t afford a repeat of last year’s quarter-final first leg, when a 2-2 draw at home to Bayern Munich set up a largely miserable night at the Allianz Arena.
Had Arsenal gone through they would have faced Real Madrid in the semis. If you want to win this trophy – their trophy – chances are you’ll have to beat them en route.
This is the ultimate test for Arsenal, one that elicits fear but also excitement and a powerful sense of opportunity. If Arsenal can get past Madrid, they’ll fancy their chances against anybody.
Kick off 8pm.
