UEFA Champs League Preview
Uphill task for Gunners, L'kusen
AFP, Paris
Arsenal will need to pull off a first class performance, like Monaco and Deportivo La Coruna last season, to avoid elimination from the European Champions League by Bayern Munich on Wednesday. Fellow English giants Liverpool meanwhile have a great chance of reaching the quarter-finals of the competition after beating Bayer Leverkusen 3-1 at Anfield in the first leg match of the last 16.Arsenal v Bayern Munich Monaco lost 4-2 at Madrid and AC Milan beat La Coruna 4-1 but both managed to make it through to the last four and Arsenal's star striker Thierry Henry said they would be drawing inspiration from that. Arsenal host Bayern Munich with a 3-1 deficit from the first leg when only a late goal in Germany gave them hope of going through. "When Monaco lost 4-2 at Madrid, everyone was saying that Real were already through and the same when Milan won 4-1 against La Coruna," said Henry, who goes into the match bolstered by a hat-trick against Portsmouth on Saturday. "But things can happen. We need to put passion in the game to make it happen for us but I'm sure the fans will be up for it. "You just never know. Even if Bayern score early, the game is not finished. Milan have defenders like Paolo Maldini and Alessandro Nesta but they still lost 4-0 after winning the first leg 4-1. "Normally you would say that could never happen to them as they have experience, but it happened. "Maybe we saw the wrong Arsenal in the first leg, but hopefully we can see the good Arsenal this time." Wenger is set to be without Sol Campbell and Pascal Cygan, who sustained a thigh injury in the 3-0 weekend victory against Portsmouth. Edu should return after passing a fitness test on his hamstring injury, while Dennis Bergkamp and Jose Antonio Reyes will be back after domestic suspensions. In the absence of Campbell and Cygan, the Arsenal boss will be forced to hand a first Champions League start to 20-year-old Swiss centre-back Philippe Senderos. Bayern Munich received a major blow with Dutch international Roy Makaay set to be ruled out with a thigh injury. The 29-year-old Dutch striker - scorer of 53 goals in 78 matches for Bayern - tore a muscle in his right thigh late on in Bayern's 1-0 win over Werder Bremen at the Olympic Stadium on Saturday. "It is a new situation for us," confessed Bayern manager Felix Magath. "He's always been the first name on the team-sheet and I'll have to think hard about how to play without him." Leverkusen v Liverpool The away goal has given Leverkusen hope though they face a defensive crisis with Brazilian international Juan out for two weeks with an injury to his left foot. Leverkusen have three first choice defenders injured with German international Jens Nowotny, Brazilian World Cup winner Roque Junior and Juan on the treatment table. Augenthaler must now reshuffle his defensive pack with former German international Carsten Ramelow set to move back into central defence alongside the 20-year-old Jan-Ingwer Callsen-Bracker. However Augenthaler, a World Cup winner as a player in 1990 with the then West Germany, said he wasn't too concerned given Liverpool's mediocre form in the Premiership after going down to their 11th defeat on Saturday, a 1-0 reverse to Newcastle. "Liverpool are hardly pulling up trees," he said drily.
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