Nico Yennaris has called on the Emirates Stadium crowd to roar Arsenal on to victory in their NextGen Series quarter-final against CSKA Moscow.
The Gunners will play at the venue for the first time in the competition on Monday night, and the 21-year-old believes it will be a significant advantage.
Having come through a difficult test at Inter Milan in the last 16, Yennaris cannot wait to play on home turf with the backing of thousands of Arsenal supporters.
"Football-wise we will be able to play our game too: there will be no excuses because the pitch will be perfect. We can really show what we can do"
“I’m really looking forward to the game, hopefully there will be a decent turnout,” he told Arsenal.com.
“I always think a home crowd can make a big difference, especially if they get behind the team and lift them.
“It is much better playing in front of people than empty seats, so hopefully as many Arsenal fans as possible will come along.
“Football-wise we will be able to play our game too: there will be no excuses because the pitch will be perfect. We can really show what we can do.”
CSKA Moscow are one of the favourites for the tournament, but Yennaris insists the Gunners are quietly optimistic of progressing to the semi-finals.
“We had a bit of a blip earlier in the competition, but we have bounced back and have played well in recent games,” he said. “Everyone is full of confidence and we’re all raring to go now.
“Of course we have one eye on winning NextGen now. We said from the start that we wanted to win it, and now we’re in the quarter-finals so we have moved a lot closer to doing it.
“Everyone is really focused, but we have to do the job against CSKA Moscow first and then we can worry about the rest of the competition.”
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