This Tuesday, old acquaintances will return to the Emirates, the scene of a Champions League quarter-final for the first time since 2010. At Bayern since this season, Harry Kane will return to the pitch on which he played eight derbies from north London and where he scored five goals for Tottenham between 2015 and 2022.
His friend in the Bavarian attack Serge Gnabry will also tread on ground that he knows well, he who started as a professional at Arsenal before joining Bremen, then Bayern. A wink from history, in 2014 and while he played for the Gunners first team, he came into play to replace a certain Mikel Arteta, already against Bayern.
“He was a captain, a leader who spoke to everyone and who communicated a lot. For the young players that we were, he was very useful to us at the time,” greets Gnabry today in an interview on the Bavarian club website.
The trauma of the double 5-1
For its return to the quarter-finals of the C1, Arsenal faces an opponent who has long traumatized it. Between 2013 and 2017, the two teams faced each other four times in the Champions League. With, each time, a Bavarian qualification at stake. The latest humiliation, the double victory of the Bavarians with a scathing score of five goals to one in 2017.
Arsenal have never eliminated Bayern in the Champions League. But the Munich residents certainly let the Bundesliga title slip away by being overthrown by Heidenheim on Saturday and are continuing their delicate season. Eliminated in the Cup, the Bavarians only have the European competition to play. But in front of him stands an Arsenal which looks very different than in 2017. An Arsenal at the top of the Premier League and which once again has its destiny in its hands since its victory against Crystal Palace and Liverpool's draw at Manchester United .
“They have long had what it takes to play at the top again. The team has a certain flair and exudes a certain strength. I would say we are 50-50,” predicts Serge Gnabry before returning to his former club.