All About Today's Real Madrid Vs Arsenal Match
The defending champions Real Madrid will fly down to the Emirates Stadium in London to lock horns with the English giants Arsenal in their first leg of their quarter-finals in the UEFA Champions League 2024-25 on Wednesday. Arsenal, who has never won the UEFA Champions League, qualified to the quarter-finals by eliminating PSV in the previous match.
Meanwhile, Real Madrid coach Carlo Ancelotti is expected to make some changes to his side when it faces Arsenal away in the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday.
Despite the last match’s shocking defeat to Valencia, the Los Blancos will be looking forward to steady the ship in the competition they love the most.
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On the other hand, the match would be Arsenal’s last realistic chance of winning any silverware this season as the team has been eliminated from the League Cup and the FA Cup earlier in the campaign.
After Wednesday’s encounter, both the teams would meet again for the second leg on Thursday, April 17 at Santiago Bernabéu. And the interesting part of the match is that Real Madrid has never really beaten Arsenal in the UEFA Champions League. They had squared off twice before in the round of 16 in the 2005-2006 season, with the Gunners drawing 0-0 at home before beating Real 1-0 away from home.
As per the Arsenal team news, Gabriel Jesus, Kai Havertz, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Gabriel Magalhães, and Riccardo Calafiori are ruled out by injuries, while Raheem Sterling faces a ban due to accumulation of yellow cards. Apart from that, Arteta will hope that Mikel Merino is cleared to start alongside Bukayo Saka in attack after the Spaniard had suffered a cut to his head.
Similarly, as per the Real Madrid news, Aurélien Tchouaméni will be suspended for the first leg but would have been sidelined alongside injury absentees Dani Carvajal, Éder Militão, and Ferland Mendy anyway.
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19-year-old goalkeeper Fran Gonzalez deputized in goal against Valencia as second-choice Andriy Lunin was dealing with a calf injury. However, it is said that Lunin is expected to start against Arsenal.
