The Champions League quarter-final schedule has been confirmed, with Arsenal due to face Sporting CP in the next round.
Arsenal have formally confirmed the dates of their Champions League quarter-final tie against Sporting CP, with the first leg to be played away from home on Tuesday, April 7th at 20:00 BST, and the second leg at home on Wednesday, April 15th at 20:00.
The first leg will take place three days after Arsenal’s away trip to Southampton in the FA Cup, so there’s a tight turnaround there and the potential for some rotation in the cup match.
The good news is that this schedule means the weekend clash at home to Bournemouth between the two legs probably doesn’t need to move.
The Bournemouth game had been scheduled in for the Saturday, April 11th at 12:30, but it definitely would have needed rescheduling if Arsenal had been playing on the Wednesday.
Premier League clubs playing away from home in the Champions League on a Wednesday are never given the 12:30 kick-off on the Saturday.
As a result, the Premier League had highlighted that the Bournemouth fixture could still be changed up until last night. But with UEFA putting Arsenal on the Tuesday, that no longer appears to be necessary.
Arsenal will also have the maximum recovery time between the two legs, compared to the Wednesday-Tuesday schedule of the last-16. But on the downside, that does mean playing on the Wednesday before the Sunday trip to the Etihad to face Manchester City.
With City eliminated from the Champions League, Pep Guardiola’s side are going to get a lot more time to rest before hosting Arsenal.
City do have a postponed game against Crystal Palace to fit in, but with Palace still in the Europa Conference League at the time of writing, it doesn’t look like they’ll be able to use that midweek for it. So they’ll likely have the full week off to prepare for Arsenal.