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Wenger - How we'll approach Barca tie

Wenger v Leicester City

Arsène Wenger says his side must be aware “of the importance of the away goal” when they host Barcelona in the Champions League on Tuesday.

Arsenal have conceded at least twice in the home leg of each of their previous three Champions League last-16 ties, and have not reached the quarter-finals of the competition since 2010.

While Wenger insists his side will not completely curb their attacking instincts, he says they must do all they can to avoid the “knife in your heart” of conceding at home.

“I am more concerned about stopping them from scoring because you can say even at home in the Champions League that 0-0 is not a bad score,” he said.

"I cannot go into a game and think I will just play a zero-zero. I believe you cannot say you are a big club and you just want to defend."

Arsene Wenger

“Recently we made it always difficult for ourselves by conceding goals at home and basically the rules of the modern European Cup encourage you to defend at home and attack away because of the importance of the away goal.

“Many times I said that should be suppressed because if you concede a goal at home in the Champions League, it’s a knife in your heart every time. Against big, big teams it becomes very difficult.

“I cannot go into a game and think I will just play a zero-zero. I believe you cannot say you are a big club and you just want to defend. On the other hand, Barcelona is a very offensive team.

“So to give you no chance at all to score against them is guilty as well. You have to try to score against them because if they have a vulnerability like we have it is defensively like with any offensive team.”

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