ok champions league quarterfnals - arsenal vs juventus, who will progress, personally i think arsenal have a real chance of progressing

I think Arsenal has a good chance too.Juve seems to have problems against offensive teams with fast passing.

I think Juve will win over the two legs. They have more balance in their team in my opinion. God they were lucky to go through however in the last leg. This time they will be more careful...

don't forget that mister cole and maybe mrs Laurens, Van Persie and Campbell will be back.

It can boost bye 30 % Arsenal Strong

Juve will obliterate Arsenal. They are far too strong. Still, hopefully Arsenal will take a lead in the first game so that Juve is worried when playing Roma in 3 weeks ;-).

juve couldnt even obliterate werder
i think serie a could be embarassed here, hopefully

are there no juve fans on this forum lol

I think Juve will win both legs

More of a physical side than Madrid. So we'll see.

Vieira's return to Highbury for one last time, going to be special.

It'll be a lot tougher than Madrid, since they've established a good run of form and a decent understanding between their players. They are more physical, and with Vieira and Emerson in the midfield, it could be troublesome trying to even get the ball to Henry's feet, but then he has Cannavaro and Thuram to deal with. We'll have to really watch out for Trezeguet's head I reckon, with Camorenesi whipping balls in, he's a real threat, and that's pretty much always been our weakness, but as long as we keep up our performances, Juve have been shown to be more than beatable, and I've always thought that about their team. Cesc vs Vieira, a bit like Mentor vs Apprentice....man, or Vieira vs Diaby, original vs clone, nah, j/k j/k...they've got strong players everywhere and a top-class goalkeeper, so it's going to be extremely tough, but I'm remaining positive.

Vieira's return will going to be very special, but it won't be sweet homecoming for him, I hope

Anyways, this is gonna be a real test and I hope we can prove that we are capable to be among the best.

anyone find it ironic about the omends surrounding Liverpool last year with various things and now Arsenal have the same.

Arsenal are 5th in the league
Liverpool were 5th in the League

Arsenal are behind their local rivals for the final CL spot
Liverpool were behind their local rivals for the final CL spot

Arsenal away are pathetic
Liverpool away were pathetic.

Arsenal raise their game in the CL
Liverpool raised their game in the CL

Arsenal draw Juventus for the quarter final of the CL
Liverpool beat Juventus in the quarter final of the CL

cincinho g away please we have taken creof your movie stars

Add massive injuries, mean defense in CL (we only conceded 2 in the whole competition till now) into the list

Anyways I'm glad we're once again the underdogs (like Pool too), it takes a little pressure off us and we seem to perform much better without it.

As it stands right now I'd say Arsenal are slight favorites.

Couple of things:

- Arsenal's form is on the rise while Juve's form has been nothing short of horrible in the last two months. The team is tired which means that we can't use our most important asset (physical strength) very well, which has been the case lately unfortunately, so as far as performances go Arsenal look stronger right now.

- Arsenal have noting to lose, just like Liverpool last year. Nuff said.

- Juve have a shitty record against English teams.

If this match had to be played at the start of the season we'd eat Arsenal for breakfast, but as it stands now I think it'll be very even, perhaps with Arsenal slightly favorites because of the points I mentioned above... Should be interesting.

Also worth noting is the fact that both Henry and Vieira face their former clubs, which should be interesting (especially Vieira for obvious reasons.)

Juve have the advantage of playing the second leg at home, but I think the tie will be decided at Highbury.

Juve have never got the better of Arsenal in the CL/European Cup actually

1980 1-1 at highbury 0-1 to Arsenal away

2001-2002 3-1 at highbury 1-0 to Juve away

Intresting you say that because the one thing Arsenal has over Juve right now is youth and more pace.
Although Juve seem great at defending against that when i watch them in Serie A, they are a counter attacking side as well that can bypass midfield comfortably when attacking.

We need to score early at Highbury, i thought that was the key to Liverpool knocking them out last year. If we do score early than the crowd will be even more into the game and we could maybe sneak an other. I trust our defence to keep clean sheets in this competiton as we are closing in on a Chapions League record for consecutive clean sheets.
0-0 at Highbury wouldn't be the worst result in the world however, we seem to be playing better away from home in this competiton.

Nedved is suspended for the first leg, plus point for us.

Ofcourse one of our greatest nights in Europe came at the Delle Alpi, though i doubt anyone remembers Paul Vaessen .

Dont care who wins, should be a good game!

Whatever happens, we'll always have the bernabeu?

Exactly.

If Arsenal can get more than a one goal lead to go to Turin with. They will go through.

But if Juventus, win or draw, they will cruise to the semi final.

If arsenal win by a single goal, then the match will be a toss up.

Great news is that their probably most influential midfielder Nedved will miss the next game which will be at Highbury.

Is anyone in the Juve starting lineup under the age of 28? It seems like everyone is old. We have youth and pace and i think we have a good chance at beating them if we can score at highbury and keep a clean sheet. Juventus aren't used to fast passing teams like us so i think we can get the better of them.

Can't wait for the game. Another 2 weeks of waiting.

Well i guess we had to play one onf the big favourites at some point. I had a feeling we would draw Juventus, not overly pleased about it though as i dont think we will get the space and time to play are game like vs Madrid. Good news is IF we go through we avoid Baca and AC Milan.

The one pairing that I really wanted. This way, whoever wins can stop the talking. Knowing Capello, he won't make the same mistake twice. Do not expect a repeat of last year's Liverpool-Juve.

Trez vs. Henry
Vieira vs. his former team

It will be fantastic, and hopefully the bianconeri will use the Gunners' own weapons against them.


FORA JUVE!!!!!!!


BTW, with Nedved out for the first game, then that means the much more in form Adrian Mutu will get the start

Swift Ryder: Balzaretti, Buffon, Chiellini, Zebina, Ibrahimovic, Mutu, Zalayeta, are all 28 or under, with Abbiati, Trez, and Zambrotta being 29. That's just counting those players who have played quite a bit in the past few months (with the exception of Zebina who was injured).

We have a team with everyone in their prime, which will make for a good match.

Not to be a pain, but that's completely wrong.
Our forwards are actually very poor at counter attacking, the only one who really does make a decent run in such situations is Mutu (who incidentally should be playing since Nedved is suspended), but Zlatan and Del Piero are pretty poor at it....
Another thing to note is that Juve also suffer sides that are aggressive in midfield since our main playmakers are those four in midfield, so saying that Juve is capable of bypassing midfield when attacking is completely wrong, especially since Trezeguet isn't exactly ideal for trapping long balls and Zlatan is in pretty poor form right now.
We used the long ball technique in the last half hour against Werder and if it wasn't for Wiese we wouldn't have gone through.



Wrong again
The Delle Alpi wasn't even built in 1980, it was still the old Comunale.

You've shown me up

We will play with five (5) in midfield to help negate the effects of Vieira and emerson. The key will be to pressure the pair of them when they are on the ball. In england, teams started man marking vieira, and he found it difficult to distribute the ball the way he likes.

Mutu, should not pose a huge threat, when he was here in england, he did not look that special. From what I have seen, he has not really improved.

Ibrahimovic will be the danger, his pace, strength and skill will cause problems, especially to Senderos. I hope he has an off day in the first leg.

Reyes, Hleb, Van Persie, and Henry will cause the Juve backline problems, as when they are slightly off balance, they do not have the pace to recover. Juventus are though, extremely well organized. We will have to be at our creative best, and attack them without mercy in the first leg.

4-5-1 with Henry and v.Persie? How would you lay that out mate, I'd like to see that if you can.

I think now with the news that Nedved is out of the first leg that helps us a lot. Vieira may pass on a lot of expertise on our players though and that will give Juve a huge advantage as Vieira could reveal each player's weakness.

Oh yeah, just in case anyone didn't know the winner of this tie will play the winner of Inter/Ajax vs Villarreal.

Can't wait for this one.

Tricky tie. But its not impossiable.

Toure can cope well with Trez. Zlatan is unpredictable so he could be tricky.

We have had good results against Juve in Europe.

Arsenal-3 Juve 1

Arsenal 1- Juve 0

Arsenal 1- Juve 1

Juve 1 - Arsenal 0

mmmmm.....I'll write more later.

lol Arsenal ran into Juve. I find that funny because Madrid always seems to run into them in the knockout stages. Its ironic now that the winner of the Arsenal - Real game plays none other than Juve.

I personally feel that Juve will crush Arsenal. Their defence is far better than ours and as said before they will not give you space to work like we did.

On the bright side, if we do progress past Juventus into the semi-finals, we have a great chance since we'll be facing the easier teams out of the ones left (either Villareal, Inter or Ajax).

I will very confident about the game at Highbury if RVP makes it. Then we can use 4-4-2 and will have double the attacking threat than we had vs. Madrid. I just hope RVP is fit enought to play - he'll probably start vs. Charlton next week and the game after that which should make him ready.

Ugh - i really wish we faced Villareal though. On top of being mediocore this season, they have 3 of their starting players out for the next CL match.

This game is going to be blazin hot!... I hope that V.persie and hleb start for sure this time and that Henry scores one of his trademark freekicks, I know for a fact that its a 50/50 that Viera may be booed or cheered when we play Juve at home but I want walcott to start for a change but If we do end up playing him that we'll obviously mean were losing, anyways its gunna be a very entertaining match hopefully and I hope eboue Peforms well against Zlatan as he did against Robinho...

Good, who I wanted paired with Arsenal.

I think the first leg is a nil-nil draw, second is one-nil to the Arsenal.

Juventus to win this comfortbaly methinks with Vieira to play a star role.

Nice.

I can add one...

Our star player's future is in doubt and this competition is the 'last hope' so to speak.
Your star player's future was in doubt and this competition won his heart over.

I hope we do a Liverpool so badly, just with a little more attack.

I can add one

Club Legends leave the club that season

Owen
Vieira

haha...a little bit of a dig there!

Wow - didn't realise there were so many similarities.

Are there any injuries from Juve?

Not for the moment, luckily.

Personally, i am very happy with the draw. Arsenal is a big name and Juve tends to concentrate better against better teams - they were lucky against werder but don't forget that they were leading 2-1 in bremen with 5 minutes left in the game and then thought they were through and gave up 2 goals... Don't expect them to make the same mistake twice.

Secondly, i am happy because Vieira knows most of Arsenal's players and he can provide Capello with good info about them. I have a feeling he will play a gret match at Anfield after being booed (which i hope he will not).

Lastly, but maybe most importantly, juve were 2 minutes from being thrown out of the competition and are in the quarter finals due to luck. This experience always unleashes a team in the next round, so watch out for juve going all out for a win in anfield contrary all expectations..

You mean Highbury? He will receive a warm welcome.

I meant highbury, my bad, i had the liverpool game last year in my mind, still can't forget luis garcia's goal ...

Added :
Mountain of injuries.
Both legends left.

Thanks for that ,OliverW.

Expected and predicted tie. This is gonna be very interesting. Arsenal vs. Juventus. Fabregas vs. Vieira. This is gonna be a great game. I can't wait for it!

Vieira gonna returns to London and proved Wenger's decision was wrong for selling him. Wenger gonna proved his decision was right. Gonna be a titanic game. Much harder than Real Madrid but I see nothing is impossible when van Persie, Cole, or Sol or Clichy are back. Through the season, we never have a proper "fit" squad but gonna predicted we beat Real Madrid plus the squad was so young (average = 24 below), inexperience and list of injuries. Can we do a "Liverpool"? Even my friend who is MU fan back Arsenal to do a "Liverpool", Gerrard is the latest (hope he means it) A tough task. Pressure. The only English club in Champions League this season. I'm proud of the Gunners!

Every Gunner was fantastic. Even skysports rate Gunners higher than Real Madrid's stars proved everything.

C'mon Gunners. All things are possible!

Uh, actually yes, Zambrotta had some muscle problems after the match against Werder and he'll be out for the next week.
He should be back for the match against Arsenal hopefully.
Not to mention Chiellini who's been out since the match against Inter for God knows what reason. :/ Hopefully he'll recover too since with them in defence the team always looked so much more secure than with balzaretti.

Not exactly the best draw for us, but at least we avoided Barca.
Never expected to be in the QF though so its just great to be there.
Should be interesting to see Vieira back at Highbury.

We beat them 3-1 at Highbury a few seasons back with Freddie scoring 2 and Henry scored an amazing free kick that left the best keeper in the world motionless. Right up there amongst our greatest European nights, so lets hope we can produce something similar. Unfortunately we lost to their 2nd string side in the final game of that group stage and got knocked out. But we have beaten them before so its possible we could beat them again. Again we are very much the underdogs, but we beat Real Madrid so anything is possible I guess.

On paper you would think Vieira and Nedved and co would be far too good for Fabregas and co but then again, you would have said the same about Zidane and co and they were humbled, twice, so who knows? Fabregas might do it again.

As for a prediction, well Juve are by far the better side and at this stage I cannot see us going through. But I thought the same about the previous round so theres always a chance.
But I can't see us pulling off a shock win again.

NO!!!!!!!!!!! I think this is crap....

Honestly - this is the draw i was least hoping for!
I think its gonna be like that game against Bayern last year. Theyl get all physical and it wont be nice footy.

If we drew Barca - so be it. Cuz getting knocked by a team like that , you gotta respect. Thats how i feel....i dunno why.

i have been going on other forums and from what i see juve fans fear us as much as arse fans fear them .

IMO is really a 50-50 but as a gooner i want arsenal to pass it. if we do end up wif the glory it's a big boost to all gooners having such a young squard and already getting the most amazing cup in the world. if we do win juve we end up we either face Inter , Villarreal or Ajax . Which i feel we book a place into the finals =]

on both legs we need big performance from our players.

Vieira won't be able to provide Juventus with that much information. Everyone knows how Arsenal play. They don't change their style of play. Everyone knows what Henry does, where he drifts, everyone knows defensively we just get behind the ball and hope to steal it away and everyone knows we are good on the break. It just depends whether Juventus can stop it or not.

I believe the current Arsenal side has an average age of 24 with Juventus 29. Arsenal will be much more energetic and as much as Juventus are the favourites, at Highbury the game will be extremely fast paced, something the Italians are not used to. I am also hoping for injuries to favour Arsenal for once this season. It would be nice if we could put out our strongest line up. I would really like to see how good this Arsenal team is when we have a balanced attack on both sides as well as a natural left footer and quicker defence. But thats just how it goes.

Vieira will go to Highbury and Henry will go to Delle Api

if we play the same way we played against Madrid, we're through to the final not just the semis...

the awaited final: Arsenal vs. Barca

Yeah, I hope Barca - Arsenal final too. It would be great. I really really hope Juve will be kicked out.

I hope anything but a Barca - Arsenal final, see the way they ripped up the so called best defence in europe? I hope with all the luck in the world Benfica defeat barca in a controversial way as we one by flair and general ass kicking so hopelly it will be a Arsenal Benifica final

I think an Arsenal - Barca/Lyon would be the most exciting also. It doesn't matter if they ripped Chelsea's defence apart, Arsenal hold the ball much better than Chelsea and are a completely different threat. The game would be end to end, would be an excelllent final and promotion for offensive, fast paced, skillfull football.

I hope more Juve fans will join this thread. hehehe! Go Arsenal!