As it turned out Arsenal weren’t a million miles from finishing first in their Champions League group this time round. But Borussia squeezed through their final game with a win. And Arsenal can look at the dropped points at home to Anderlecht which put paid to a really great outcome.
Cue the cliches – you have to beat the best to win it anyway Arsene might say. But they would surely have preferred one more easyish game before things really heat up in the quarters.
Instead they find themselves with another possible mountain to climb. This interesting graphic shows that Arsenal now have a 52% chance of facing either Barcelona, Real Madrid or Bayern in the next round – all daunting fixtures which you wouldn’t expect The Gunners to come through.
They may well still get some luck however. There is a 14% chance of meeting Porto – surely the best draw that Wenger an his men could get. They also have about an 18% chance of being drawn with Monaco – another game which could be deemed winnable.
The other team that Arsenal could face is Atletico Madrid (14%) but they would probably like to avoid that one too.
So Arsenal will surely hope for Porto. And the worst case scenario right now has to be Real Madrid who are absolutely on fire.
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