Heading to Barcelona on Wednesday, Arsenal are all but out of the Champions League.
Away from home and out of form, it’s no wonder nobody expects the Gunners to overturn a 2-0 deficit in the second leg. However, defender Laurent Koscielny feels that may just play into the team’s hands.
“We don’t have pressure like in the first game, because we play against the best team in the world,” the Frenchman said in an interview with Arsenal Player. “Now we need to play the second leg away at Barca and we have nothing to lose.
“You know when you play against the best players in the world, the best team with a good collective side, it’s very important for us. It can be very important if we can have a [good] result.”
Even if Arsenal don’t qualify a good performance or result could work wonders for the team’s belief. The title race seems out of our reach unless we put together an incredibly good run of results, so what better place to start than Barcelona?
The front three of Wednesday’s opposition is widely regarded as the best in the world, so it will be a boost if Arsenal have Koscielny back for the game after a few weeks out.
“They have a lot of quality, they can have a lot of possession during the game and when they accelerate with their top players, they create chances.”
That’s what they did at the Emirates, and Arsenal have to be wary of befalling the same fate on Wednesday.