Ex-England midfielder Danny Murphy has confidently backed Arsenal to go on and secure their place within the Champions League final should they get past Sporting this evening.
Arsenal take a one-goal lead into tonight’s quarter-final second leg due to Kai Havertz’s dramatic breakthrough within the closing stages of the edges’ previous encounter in Lisbon.
It provided a welcome morale boost for a squad badly struggling for confidence after back-to-back defeats to Manchester City and Southampton within the Carabao Cup and FA Cup respectively.
Nonetheless, a shock 2-1 defeat away to Bournemouth within the Premier League on the weekend will only have added to the sense of nervousness amongst Arsenal’s fanbase heading into a vital run of fixtures.
On the eve of their second leg with Sporting, Arsenal discovered their potential semi-final opponents as Atletico Madrid beat Barcelona 3-2 on aggregate to secure their place in the ultimate 4.
A pair of early goals from Lamine Yamal and Ferran Torres had given Barca hope of progression, but Ademola Lookman’s strike on the half-hour mark proved decisive and sent Hansi Flick’s men crashing out of the competition.
Should they preserve their advantage over Sporting, Arsenal will do battle with Atleti over two legs (April 29 and May 5) for place on this yr’s final at Budapest’s Puskas Arena on May 30.
Asked whether Atleti pose a greater or worse prospect for Arsenal than Barcelona, former Liverpool and Tottenham star Murphy said on talkSPORT: ‘Higher. Barcelona, at their best, can absolutely crucify anybody with the talent they’ve got.
‘Atletico Madrid have gotten some experience and a few good players but Arsenal wiped the ground with them earlier within the season once they were playing well.
You possibly can’t help it as a player, once you’re in European competitions, I remember we [Liverpool] made the error and all of us celebrated once we drew Bayer Leverkusen within the quarter-finals and this was a Leverkusen side with Dimitar Berbatov, Michael Ballack, who then went on to be great players.
‘But we were like, “We’ll get through that, no problem”, and we ended up going out so you could have to watch out to not get too complacent – and I’m sure Arsenal won’t.’
Murphy, who won the UEFA Cup with Liverpool in 2001, added: ‘I believe it’s a significantly better scenario for Arsenal to be playing Atletico Madrid relatively than Barcelona.
‘Regardless of Arsenal being a bit nervy on the minute, I see them in the ultimate already.’
Who would win a possible Arsenal vs Atleti semi-final?
While Murphy is confident Arsenal will come through their second leg withSporting unscathed, the potential absence of Jurrien Timber stays a slight concern for the ex-England international.
‘Timber has been missing and there’s a probability he comes back and he’s an excellent full-back, offensively and defensively,’ Murphy explained.
‘If he isn’t fit, Ben White has probably struggled a little bit bit greater than we’ve seen previously.’
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Turning his attentions to a team closer to his heart, Liverpool, Murphy felt the very best team ultimately won after Paris Saint-Germain beat Arne Slot’s men 4-0 on aggregate to achieve the semi-finals.
In keeping with Murphy, Rio Ngumoha was unlucky to not have been given the nod from the beginning after his eye-catching display within the Reds’ win over Fulham on the weekend.
‘The truth is that over the 2 games the very best team won. They usually [PSG] are a really classy outfit by the best way,’ he explained.
‘I used to be a little bit bit dissatisfied in the primary half that Liverpool didn’t go more gung-ho but each time they did really push on, they got played through and PSG could have scored in the primary half. So I believe they went concerning the game the appropriate way.
‘The choice was a little bit little bit of a head-scratcher. I’m amazed he didn’t stick Rio Ngumoha in after his performance the opposite day and most Liverpool fans are disgruntled by that.
‘But even when he had modified the team, even when he had done it a bit in another way, I still think we’d be here with the identical end result.’
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