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12th March 2024
12:27pm GMT
Arsenal could find themselves out of two competitions in one night if they are beaten by Porto on Tuesday night.
The Gunners face the Portuguese outfit in the second leg of the Champions League round of 16 tie and are 1-0 down following Galeno’s stoppage time winner.
Mikel Arteta’s side host the second leg at the Emirates Stadium as they bid to reach the quarter finals for the first time in 14 years but should they fall to defeat, it will mean the end of the road for them in not one, but two competitions.
We’re all familiar with the concept of the Club World Cup. Usually, the winner of each respective continental competition will go head-to-head with each other for the prize but now the tournament is undergoing a bit of a makeover.
Scheduled to take place in the USA next year, the tournament is set to take place between June 15 to July 13 and is set to include 32 teams, including the winners of the four previous continental championships.
The 12 teams qualifying from UEFA will include the winners of the Champions League between 2021 and 2024, as well as additional teams to be determined by a club ranking in those four years.
However due to Arsenal’s absence from the Champions League in recent years, their coefficient ranking is considerably lower than any of their rivals and in order to qualify for the Club World Cup, they would need to win the Champions League this year.
Despite heading into the game one goal down, Arteta says it’s no different to situations they have faced in the Premier League and has called for the fans’ backing.
He said: “We’ll just focus on ourselves and doing more. We need [the crowd] playing every ball with us and we need that emotional control as well. It’s a beautiful opportunity to live one of those nights.”
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