The Arsenal Gunners travel to Eindhoven in the Netherlands to play against PSV on Tuesday , February 20th at Philips Stadium for the first leg of their match up in the knock out stage for the UEFA Champions League with kick off at 2:45pm EST .
PSV Eindhoven cleared the group stage in spite of losing both of their last two UEFA Champions League fixtures. They will try to end Arsenal FC's dominance over them when the two teams meet up in the last 16 knock out stage.
The clubs had never met in UEFA competitions before September 2002 and then the sides became familiar foes. This will be their third match up in five seasons although it will be the first in a knockout format.
Arsenal looks to accomplish a step further than the 2006 season when they lost in the final to FC Barcelona. The Gunners have not tasted defeat in any of the four matches between these two teams, winning twice and recording two draws.
Their first confrontation happened during the 2002/03 UEFA Champions League first group stage. Arsenal won 4-0 on the road with a deuce of goals by French footballer Thierry Henry when he added to earlier strikes from Gilberto and Fredrik Ljungberg. Gilberto’s goal came at 20.07 seconds into the match. The recorded fastest goal ever made in the competition.
A next match at Highbury ended 0-0. Later in the 2004/05 group stage, Arsenal won with a minimal 1-0 in London through Alex who committed and auto goal. Arsenal also earned a 1-1 draw in Eindhoven with Henry again finding the PSV Stadium to his favor by tying the match when PSV was ahead through an André Ooijer's early goal.
This season PSV varied results in all three of their Group C home fixtures, drawing 0-0 with Liverpool FC, beating Galatasaray SK 2-0 and losing 3-1 to FC Girondins de Bordeaux on Matchday 6 once their place in the last 16 was already secured.
PSV hasn’t had the greatest home form against English clubs with four wins in eleven games and none in the last five. Coach Ronald Koeman's squad moved on to the group stage for the third successive year and this will be an attempt to improve on last season's dissatisfaction at this stage when they lost both legs to Olympique Lyonnais. Lyon won on the road 1-0 and crushed PSV 4-0 at home.
The preceding campaign was the first time PSV progressed to the knockout stage. They beat AS Monaco FC at home and away and went all the way to the semi-finals where they lost to Italian AC Milan on away goals.
The Gunner’s first and only loss in a UEFA club game in the Netherlands was a 2-1 defeat at AFC Ajax in the first leg of the 1971/72 European Champion Clubs' Cup semi-final. However the Gunners have come out unbeaten from their four subsequent visits to Dutch clubs.
Arsenal split two games against PSV and drew with Ajax 0-0. They also visited Ajax again in last season's group stage where they prevailed by winning 2-1. They led Group G with eleven points and did well on all three results away from home, winning 2-1 at Hamburger SV before a 1-0 defeat at PFC CSKA Moskva, their first away reverse in eight matches in the competition properly.
A scoreless draw at FC Porto on Matchday 6 qualified Arsenal with their seven goals in the six group games scored by seven different players. At this phase 12 months ago, Arsène Wenger's team traveled to Real Madrid CF and came home with a 1-0 first leg victory courtesy of Henry's superb solo strike.
Sportbet.com has Arsenal paying +135 while home team PSV is +160 with a +200 draw . This is a no brainer, Arsenal all the way. The total is 2 OV -140 and the under is even money . Take the over in my opinion. On the Asian Line Arsenal is PK-135 which has great value while PSV at -105 doesn’t seem good to me.
