Arsenal secretary David Miles joked he won’t be allowed to return home after the Gunners were handed a Champions League last 16 tie against Barcelona.
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Barca eliminated Arsene Wenger’s side in successive years in 2010 and 2011 – 6-3 and 5-2 on aggregate respectively – and denied the Gunners the trophy with two late goals in the 2006 final at the Stade de France.
Premier League rivals and 2012 winners Chelsea will also face some difficulty as they are to play against French champions Paris Saint-Germain.
The French champions triumphed at exactly the same stage last season while the 2012 champions had the upper hand in the quarter-finals the previous year.
Another clash between big guns will feature last season’s finalists Juventus against Bayern Munich, while Real Madrid were drawn against Roma.
Twice out of those five times, Arsenal were knocked out by Barcelona at the same stage of the competition.
With their current injury crisis, and the mere fact that it’s this Barcelona side, makes it seem like it might be an extra two matches for the London team. The fans will enjoy themselves, we’re two sides with a similar understanding of the game.
“Chelsea are playing at Christmas and new year and that must be a great effort for them, a very hard moment both mentally and physically”, Silva told Omnisport.
“This is the draw we wanted”, they said.
UEFA.com has announced its Champions League XI for the 2015-16 group stage, with no representatives from European champions Barcelona.
“You only know if it’s a good draw after the tie. The truth is that Juventus and PSG were two teams we didn’t want to draw”, he admitted as quoted by Sport.
Roma might consider the fixture a good omen; as the only time they have made it to the quarterfinals was in 2007/08, where they beat Real Madrid home and away to qualify.
“We were in a very complicated group and we did very well to come through it without too much difficulty”.
Former Real Madrid and Spain star Emilio Butragueno, now a club director with the La Liga giants, admitted the draw could have been worse for Rafael Benitez’s side.
Chelsea have been drawn against Paris St-Germain for the third consecutive season, while Manchester City face Dynamo Kiev.
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“We might have hoped to be luckier in this draw but I like our team in Europe so far”, Juventus vice president and former player Pavel Nedved said.
