Mikel Arteta has insisted Arsenal will have to produce a “magic moment” to write their names into the history books.
The Gunners face Bayern Munich at the Emirates as Arteta looks to lead the club into their first Champions League semi-final since 2009. Arteta has urged the crowd to create a special atmosphere to overcome Harry Kane ’s Bayern who they have never got past in the knock-out stage and Arsenal have lost their last three meetings by the same 5-1 scoreline.
Gunners boss Arteta said: “You want to overcome those hurdles in this competition. You are going to need magic moments. At a certain stage, at a certain moment, in the competition, in the tie, something exceptional has to happen.
“It has to go your way, you have to generate that momentum and in order for that to happen, you have to make it happen otherwise it’s not going to come. You have to provoke that and we will try to make that happen.
“With the atmosphere we have in our stadium, the energy they create and the positivity we had against Porto in the last round, you could see and sense it that it’s an extra thing you have that the opponent doesn’t have and we have to feel that from the very first whistle.”
Bayern are seasoned European campaigners but their fans are banned from the Emirates after UEFA punished them for two recent offences of letting off fireworks. The Germans are in a state of disarray as they are 16 points behind Bayer Leverkusen in the Bundesliga and Thomas Tuchel is leaving at the end of the season.
But Arteta insists Arsenal still lack Bayern’s European experience and pedigree. Arteta said: “Bayern have the experience and have gone through a lot of those moments and that is in their history. It’s that presence and that security that they transmit within their body language. Because they’ve done it and have the reassurance that they can do it again and that’s really important.
“We are now creating a new history and that is why those moments that we had in the group stages, for qualifying first and now what we did with Porto is really important as it generates belief, a sense of positivity in the team that when the moment comes we can overcome it and go through.
“Belief, that’s the first thing. Belief that we can do it and belief there will be tough moments in the tie and go through them together and think very positively. The players have given us a lot of reasons to believe in them and certainly we will give it a big go.”
