Arsenal legend Thierry Henry has said Manchester City and Real Madrid are the two teams his old club will not want to face in the UEFA Champions League quarter-finals this season.
Arsenal Have Qualified For The Champions League Quarter-Finals After 14 Years
Premier League giants Arsenal beat FC Porto 4-2 on penalties after playing out a 1-1 draw over 210-odd minutes across two legs in the Champions League Round-of-16. Goalkeeper David Raya was the hero of the second leg, as he made two crucial saves in the shootout to secure Arsenal’s first quarter-final participation for the first time since 2010.
The north London outfit will face any of Manchester City, Real Madrid, Barcelona, Borussia Dortmund, Atletico Madrid, Bayern Munich, and Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the final eight of the competition.
Thierry Henry Names The Two Teams Who Can Be ‘Cocky’ In Champions League
Speaking on CBS Sports, Henry said he knew the feeling of being underestimated and also underestimating a team in the Champions League. Citing past instances, he explained why it was not wise to underrate any team that had come all this way in the competition.
The 1998 FIFA World Cup winner said (via Football365):
“I’ve been in both situations as a player where sometimes people didn’t want to play us with Arsenal and we didn’t go really far, and we had a team when we went to the final I don’t think was our best team at Arsenal.
“I remember when we drew Real Madrid everyone laughed because they said, ‘Arsenal are the team you want’, and we Juve and everyone said, ‘that’s a good draw for Juve’, then we played Villarreal, who were a good team at the time, then they aid, ‘it’s good to play Arsenal’, then obviously we couldn’t win the final. I’m just saying, you can never disrespect anyone in Europe.”
He added:
“There are two teams there who can be cocky – it’s Real Madrid and Man City, that’s about it. The others, you just take who you can play.
“Man City are the team to beat still, for me. I know Pep, it’s not how he’s going to take it, I was just putting it out there. The champions can talk – Man City – and then Real Madrid, we already know they have 14, other than that, let’s see what’s going to happen.”
All eight quarter-finalists will know of their fate when the Champions League draw takes place in UEFA’s headquarters in Nyon on Friday (March 15).
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