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Nine players will be walking a tightrope during the first leg of Arsenal vs Real Madrid as they risk suspension for the second leg. While the Premier League side have just three players at risk, Los Blancos have double those numbers.
Declan Rice, Gabriel Martinelli, and Jurrien Timber are key to Arsenal's starting XI under Mikel Arteta. All three have started in the first leg and will need to avoid a booking to play in the second leg at Santiago Bernabeu.
Eduardo Camavinga, Vinicius Jr, Antonio Rudiger, and Luka Modric are the players at risk from Los Blancos, and they all start in the first leg. They are joined by Endrick and Lucas Vazquez as the Real Madrid players who can miss the second leg if they get booked on Tuesday, April 8.
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The meeting this week is the third meeting between the two sides, with the previous two having taken place in the 2005-06 season. The Gunners drew 0-0 when they last hosted Los Blancos - that came in the second leg 19 years ago, after they had won 1-0 at Santiago Bernabeu.
Former Arsenal player gave Mikel Arteta advice on beating Real Madrid
Emmanuel Petit spoke to Poker Firma earlier this month and claimed that Arsenal needed to take their chances to beat Real Madrid. However, he added that the key would be in defense as they needed to do well against the likes of Jude Bellingham, Kylian Mbappe, and Vincius Jr.
He said via GOAL:
"It's simple. They need to defend well as a unit against Madrid. The likes of Vinicius, Bellingham and Mbappe are players that can hurt you at any time. They have so many top players that can make the difference and they've done it in the past in the Champions League. These are the kinds of players they have to come up against. If they can play as a unit and they can show great character defensively, then they will have a chance. Then they would have to be very clinical. This is something that teams have been struggling with against Real Madrid in the last few years."
"When opportunity comes, when you have the chance to score, you have to take it. And we all know that Arsenal, at the moment, don't have the striker for that. I've seen so many games over the last few years when Madrid were dominated by opponents. Matches where the opponent were having so many chances to score, and they didn't take it. Real are very clinical all the time, so for me these are the two main things: play strong defensively, show unity, character and personality. But in the meantime, up front, when one opportunity to score comes up, you have to take it," Petit added.
The Gunners are without Gabriel for the rest of the season after he picked up a hamstring injury last week.
