Arsenal Doomed to Face Bayern Munich in UEFA Champions League Again?

With Arsenal safely through into the round of 16 yet again (albeit as the runners up… yet again), they can set their sights on the next opponent, which will be drawn on Monday, December 15th.

Nothing is set in stone yet, but the probabilities for the draw have been set, and it’s a gloom perspective from an Arsenal standpoint. Arsenal’s highest probability has them facing Bayern Munich (24%), like they did last year… and the year before that. And before that they faced Barcelona.

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I understand that this is the UEFA Champions League and that these are the best team in Europe and that if we want to win it, we’ll have to face these teams anyways, but is it really too much to ask for Arsenal to get a decent round of 16 draw for once?

With just under one fourth of the likelihood that we’ll face Bayern, the other highest probability is Monaco at 17% followed by a host of teams (Porto, Atletic Madrid, Barcelona and Real Madrid) at 14%.

On the bright side, Arsenal have shown pretty strong in the past against Bayern. Last year we dropped the first game 2-0 and drew the second 1-1 and the year before that we dropped the first 3-1 but countered with a 2-0 win. Obviously neither was enough, but they were decent showings.

Not only that but Arsenal are somewhat bringing it together as of late (minus the embarrassment to Stoke City). Plus, we’re getting healthy.

While drawing Bayern would lead to a mass of moans and groans, I’m actually fairly confident in Arsenal’s ability to overcome the odds. And that’s assuming we even draw Bayern.

Fingers will still be crossed come Monday.

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