The 2nd leg of the UEFA Champions League quarter-final game between former German Champions, Bayern Munich and Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal comes off at the Allianz Arena on Wednesday night and one wonders, can Bayern’s UCL pedigree help them KO Arsenal?

After an entertaining 2-2 draw in the first encounter at the Emirates, an Arsenal side that might have just lost the English Premier League title race to Man City with a 0-2 defeat to Aston Villa, will have to pick itself up and try to pull off a huge one against Bayern.

Finally knowing the German league is not something they can win, the home team will have to find a way to repeat previous performances against the Gunners in the Champions League if they want to give themselves a chance of winning any trophy this season.

Bayern’s Last Shot at a Trophy is now the Champions League

While one can talk about Bayern’s superior head-to-head record over Arsenal or their great home form in the UEFA Champions League as their biggest strengths going into this enormous encounter, we would argue none of those things are Bayern’s biggest motivations.

If you are a Bayern Munich side, considered one of the biggest clubs in all of Europe 6 times winners of the UEFA Champions League and have lost the league title you have won for the past 9 seasons, avoiding going trophy-less will be your only goal.

The only way Bayern avoids ending this season without winning anything and making the season a complete failure and unacceptable to the fans would be winning the UEFA Champions League or at least getting to the final two stages and that starts by knocking out Arsenal.

Arsenal Fans would not Mind Lifting the UCL, if not the EPL

While lifting the Champions League is technically not Arsenal’s only chance at winning silverware this season given they are just two points behind Man City in the league at 2nd, and have already won the EFL Community Shield, the Gunners would not mind lifting the UCL at all.

It is general knowledge the Gunners were dreaming about lifting a different trophy this season, the EPL, however with that dream looking a lot closer to impossible now, Mikel Arteta and his lads would not mind switching their attention to the UEFA Champions League.

It is, after all, the trophy the Gunners have never won and dream of winning someday, they just did not imagine that that day could be this season with Arsenal only potentially four games away from lifting the Champions League but first, they will have to overcome Bayern at the Allianz Arena.

Match Stats

In the previous 5 meetings between Bayern Munich and Arsenal, Bayern have won 3 including two 5-1 wins at home, while Arsenal have won one, 2-0 at home, and drew the other (the recent 2-2).

Bayern Munich have created the 2nd most big chances in the UEFA Champions League this season, 31, behind City’s 37, while Arsenal have kept the most clean sheet together with Dortmund and Inter, (4).

Bayern Munich's latest meetings with Arsenal have been high-scoring with over 2.5 goals in all of their last 4 encounters (Champions League).

Bayern Munich have not been beaten in their last 9 straight home clashes in the Champions League while Arsenal are unbeaten in 6 of their last 7 Champions League games.

Check Game out on MSport here

Leicester City, back on top of the EFL Championship table with a game in hand on 88 points, will be looking to see out their charge to return to the English Premier League next season by getting the most of their remaining 5 games, starting at Plymouth Argyle.

Plymouth in front of their home fans at the Home Park, will also be looking forward to marching further away from the relegation zone by putting more distance between themselves and 22nd-placed Sheffield Wednesday with only 2 points separating them.

Plymouth are Unbeaten against Leicester at Home in Previous 3 Meetings

While one will have to go at least 14 years back to the last time Plymouth played Leicester at their Home Park, Neil Dewsnip’s side are on a 3-game unbeaten run at their home front in games against Leicester City.

In the last three meetings between the two sides at Plymouth’s home, the home side have won one, 3-0, and drawn two, 0-0 and 1-1, and will be hoping they can replicate that trend against the first-placed side.

While their current home form is nothing to write home about with zero wins in their last eight home games, Plymouth will hope they take inspiration from their last victory at home this season over Cardiff or their 1-1 home draw with Leeds in the FA Cup, which they lost on penalties.

The good news for Plymouth is that Leicester City are also going through their very own rough patch having suffered defeats in all their last three away games in all competitions and that should be enough motivation to avoid a result like the 4-0 they suffered away at Leicester when the two sides met earlier this season.

Leicester’s Form is not great, but it’s better than Plymouth’s

Enzo Maresca’s side are not living their best form at the moment with their wins over Birmingham and Norwich at home, the only time they’ve taken all 3 points on offer from their last six games in all competitions.

Their overall form is not that different from their away form either, with the Foxes managing only two wins in their last six games on the road, losing each of their last against Chelsea in the FA Cup, and Bristol and Millwall in the Championship.

Still, with Leicester’s lacklustre performances in recent weeks as it is, it is a lot better than their opponents as Neil Dewsnip’s Plymouth mastered only a single win in their last eight games in all competitions, a 0-1 win over bottom-placed Rotherham.

Plymouth’s overall form is one better than their home form as they have not managed a single win in their last eight games at the Home Park and that together with the gap in quality with Leicester suggests the away side should just about manage a win on Friday.

Match Stats

Plymouth Argyle are ranked 10th in goals scored per match (1.4 goals) while Leicester are ranked 3rd in goals scored per match (1.9 goals).

Plymouth Argyle's form hasn't been good, as the team has won only 1 of their last 10 home matches (Championship) while Leicester City have lost their last 3 away all competition matches in a row.

In Plymouth Argyle's last 4 home all competition matches, there have been under 2.5 goals while Leicester have been awarded the most penalties this season (12).

Plymouth’s Conor Hazard is ranked 3rd in saves per match in the competition (3.5) while Abdul Issahaku of Leicester is ranked 1st in big chances created in the competition (27).

You can check out the Plymouth Argyle vs Leicester City Championship game on MSport here.

Former Barcelona manager and the man who led them to win the UCL trophy in 2015, Luis Enrique, now with PSG, will be looking forward to stopping a Barca side led by his former player, Xavi, in the first leg of this season’s UEFA Champions League quarterfinal.

First, welcoming his former team to the Parc des Princes, Luis Enrique will be looking to use a Real Madrid-bound Kylian Mbappe to gain a first-leg advantage before the second leg at the Estadi Olímpic Lluís Companys, their temporary home amidst a Camp Nou revamp.

Luis Enrique Would Love to Prove a Point with Barca

Luis has many reasons for wanting to beat and eliminate Barca from the UEFA Champions League, the most obvious of which is that he is the manager of their opponents, PSG, however, aside from the most obvious, the Spanish manager has others.

The first of those reasons is that the manager, underneath all his affection for Barca, will be looking for his form of payback for the fact that he was given the boot from the Barca job only two years after lifting ten (10) trophies for them including the UCL and La Liga.

Away from that, the UEFA Champions League has been a trophy that has eluded the PSG team for years and regardless of the money, investments, and managers, they have brought to try to change that, they have not been able to.

With Kylian Mbappe set to leave the French club at the end of this season, it will feel for Luis Enrique as his last opportunity to try to take advantage of the presence of the star winger to try to do the thing many top managers like Ancelotti, Tuchel, Emery, and Pochettino have failed to do.

Barca Seems a Reinvented Side since Xavi’s Threat to Leave

The Barcelona side that started the La Liga season and went 5 points behind Girona at 3rd place on the La Liga table would have probably made this UCL quarter final fixture a foregone conclusion but not this Barca side, and it’s because of their manager Xavi.

Ever since Xavi publicly announced his intentions to leave the job at the end of the season, the Spanish side looks like a whole new different team, compared to the one from before.

Since dropping his resignation bombshell after a 5-3 loss to Villarreal in January, Xavi has presided over an 11-game unbeaten streak across all competitions, a run that includes an emphatic 3-1 home beating of Napoli in the 2nd leg of their last-16 tie following a 1-1 draw on Italian soil.

This rejuvenated Barca side and their current form mean the game on Wednesday would be anything but easy for PSG, and if that is not enough the history between the two sides in the competition, which has seen each side win the fixture four times each, sets this up beautifully.

Match Stats

PSG, sitting 10 points clear at the top of the French Ligue 1 with six games left to play, are currently on a 27-game unbeaten run in all competitions while Barca, 8 points behind Spanish League leaders, Real Madrid, are on an 11-game unbeaten run.

PSG are unbeaten in 19 home games in all competitions including their R16 game against Spanish side Real Sociedad, while Barca are unbeaten in their 5 most recent away games in all competitions including their round 16 game versus Napoli.

PSG are reaching an average of 2.00 goals in home Champions League games while the average number of goals scored by Barcelona is 2.00 for their matches in the Champions League.

You can check out the 1st leg of the PSG vs Barca UEFA Champions League quarterfinal game here on MSport.

Erik and his Manchester United team do not have the time to reel from their recent shocking defeat at the hands of arch-rivals Chelsea during mid-week, as they have to welcome the EPL title chasers now, Liverpool at the Old Trafford this Sunday.

Jurgen Klopp’s Liverpool team is in much better spirits than their upcoming opponents as they survived a second-half scare the same day United went down at the Bridge when Sheffield equalized an early Darwin Nunez goal for two late goals to hand them all 3 points.

United Have Enjoyed Success against Liverpool at Home Recently

While Manchester United’s home form has not been particularly incredible or exemplary, they have found a way to make it just so in games against Jurgen Klopp’s side in recent times beating the Merseyside Reds in their last two meetings at the Theatre of Dreams, one this season in the FA Cup and the other in the league last season.

To underscore just how peculiar United’s upper hand over Liverpool at their home is, one has to take into consideration that United is the 11th-best club in the English Premier League this season at home, a huge difference from the 6th they are in away games.

Erik Ten Hag will have to make sure resting Marcus Rashford against Chelsea was worth it come Sunday or get the likes of Anthony and Garnacho to repeat their great performance against the Blues versus the Reds especially if they would like to keep the 6th position they currently occupy on the league table.

1st-Placed Liverpool Really Want this EPL Title

Liverpool has never really needed a reason to want to win a title. It has been for a long time something they had to do and was expected of them by their mere existence, especially after the arrival of their German gaffer, Jurgen Klopp.

So this season they have already chalked up the EFL Carabao, and are looking forward to adding the Premier League title and the FA Cup title all of which they are very much going strong in.

That is what their 13-game unbeaten run in all competitions screams and for that run to come to an end this Sunday, it would take something very very strong but away from that, if Liverpool ever needed a reason to win the league this season, that it is Klopp’s last season seems a very good reason.

Possible Absentees

Due to either injuries or suspensions, either one of Varane, Shaw, Martinez, Lindelof could miss the Liverpool game for United while the likes of Alisson, Wataru Endo, Trent, Jota, and Robertson could miss the game for Klopp’s side.

Match Stats

Man. United are ranked 12th in goals scored per match (1.4 goals) while Liverpool are ranked 2nd in goals scored per match (2.3 goals) in the EPL this season.

Bruno Fernandes is ranked 3rd in big chances created in the competition (14) while Mohamed Salah is ranked 1st in big chances created in the competition (19). Both players have the most goal contributions for their sides, 11 for Bruno and 25 for Salah.

Liverpool have managed to win in only 4 of their 24 most recent away clashes with Manchester United in all competitions.

You can check out the Man United vs Liverpool game on MSport here:

https://www.msport.com/ng/web/sports/Soccer/England_Premier_League/Man_Utd_vs_Liverpool/sr:match:41763537?k=Liverpool?EMA