by redordead » Fri Feb 23, 2018 10:20 am
WENGER HOPING FOR GOOD DRAW AFTER EUROPA LEAGUE BLIP
Arseblog News Hound
23 Feb 2018 09:31:44
Arsene Wenger says he’s hoping for a good draw when Arsenal are pulled out of the hat in the Europa League draw later today.
The Gunners stumbled into the competition’s last-sixteen despite an embarrassing second-leg defeat against Swedish side Ostersund at the Emirates last night. The minnows had the home side on the ropes when they scored twice in 70 seconds in the first half before Sead Kolasinac’s strike calmed frayed nerves and secured a 4-2 aggregate victory.
Speaking in his pre-Carabao Cup final press conference, Wenger noted: “It looks like the level is high. You have some Russian teams, you have French teams, German teams.
“Overall, I believe that the competition will become tougher and tougher, so let’s hope we have a good draw.”
Asked whether last night’s result represented a blip, he continued: “Yes, you can say that [it was a blip], of course.
“Overall, I must say, having the [League] Cup final and having won 3-0 last week, subconsciously we were not at the focused level we needed against any team. We played against a good side.
“Having said that, we would have needed to concede four goals to go out last night and I still believe during the game that we’d respond at some stage and not go out.”
Our list of possible opponents is as follows:
AC Milan
Dynamo Kyiv
Athletic Bilbao
Atletico Madrid
CSKA Moscow
RB Salzburg
Zenit Saint Petersburg
Borussia Dortmund
Lazio
Sporting Lisbon
Lyon
Marseille
Viktoria Plzen
RB Leipzig
Lokomotiv Moscow
The draw, which takes place in Nyon, Switzerland, begins at 12pm UK time.
There’s no seeding or country protection so all 16 balls will be placed in the same bowl. That said, because they seem to hate each other quite a bit, teams from Russia and Ukraine cannot be drawn together.
There's confidence for you
I set myself some very low standards in which i fail to achieve