Arsène Wenger

Wenger: Champions League draw is a 50/50

By Richard Clarke

Arsène Wenger believes Arsenal’s Champions League tie against Roma is a “50:50”.

The Frenchman saw his side pitched against the Italian giants in the draw for the Knockout Round on Friday. Given Roma are 10th in Serie A and Arsenal could have been paired with Barcelona and Bayern Munich, some at Emirates Stadium may view this as a satisfactory draw. Wenger, on the other hand, sees little difference between the teams involved.

“It is a 50/50 draw,” said the manager. “Roma are back to form now and maybe are the best team in Italy at the moment. So it will be interesting.

“We want to make a good draw of it, but it looks a well-balanced tie. Roma are a very balanced team with their play-maker Totti and around him they have players like De Rossi, Aquilani, Perrotta, Taddei and Julia Baptista, who we had here. They are all very technical players who are comfortable in a small space.

“They are a team where you want to defend very well. It would have been a bit the same to have drawn Barcelona, because they play the same type of football as Roma.
 
“There are some great ties with some great names and tradition. The fact so many big teams finished second in the group stage made that inevitable. The fact the Final will be in Rome means they have an incentive to fight in the second leg.”

And, of course, the tournament will change focus between now and late February.

“The Champions League now becomes a different competition,” said Wenger. “Before it was like a championship, now it becomes a cup competition. The form of the day and how much you can put a performance in makes a difference.

“Until now if you had one bad game, you could catch back. Now that is finished. If you miss five minutes of the 180 [in the Knockout], you are out.”

[Friday, December 19, 2008]

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