Arsenal will have to produce the biggest second leg comeback in a Champions League knockout tie to avoid a seventh successive exit at the last 16 stage when they host Bayern Munich on Tuesday.
A 5-1 trouncing in Bavaria left the Gunners facing mission impossible for the return leg and confidence is hardly soaring after a 3-1 defeat by Liverpool on Saturday left Arsene Wenger’s team outside the Premier League’s top four.
Stranger things have happened, if not in the Champions League where no team has ever recovered from a four-goal deficit in the second leg of a knockout tie.
To progress Arsenal will have to better the feat of Spaniards Deportivo La Coruna who recovered from a 4-1 loss away to AC Milan in 2004, winning 4-0 at home to reach the semis.
The last time a team overcame a four-goal deficit in European competition was Real Madrid in the 1985-86 UEFA Cup — beating Borussia Moenchengladbach 4-0 at home after suffering, like Arsenal, a 5-1 defeat in Germany.
Few Arsenal fans will travel to the Emirates with much hope though and, rather than provide one of the greatest comebacks ever witnessed, the fixture is likely to provide another soapbox for the growing band who feel Wenger’s era is close to the end.
Arsenal’s capitulation in Munich, together with Premier League losses to Watford, Chelsea and Liverpool in their last four Premier League games have stretched the patience of even Wenger’s most loyal disciples to breaking point.
Team News-
Mesut Ozil should return for Arsenal having missed the Gunners’ 3-1 defeat to Liverpool on Sunday due to illness, per the Daily Star’s Konstantinos Lianos.
Long-term absentee Santi Cazorla remains sidelined, although Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger recently revealed the Spaniard could return before the end of the season, per The Sun’s Gary Stonehouse.
Alexis Sanchez was controversially dropped to the bench for the Liverpool clash on Saturday, but he will likely be restored to the starting XI to take on Bayern, per Lianos.
For Bayern, Mats Hummels, Xabi Alonso, Arjen Robben and Franck Ribery could all return to the starting XI having been benched for Saturday’s 3-0 defeat of FC Cologne with the Arsenal clash in mind.
Possible Lineups-
Arsenal XI: Ospina; Bellerin, Koscielny, Mustafi, Monreal; Coquelin, Xhaka; Walcott, Ozil, Welbeck; Sanchez
Bayern XI: Neuer; Lahm, Martinez, Hummels, Alaba; Alonso, Vidal; Robben, Alcantara, Ribery; Lewandowski
