Key events
19 min: Athletic free-kick, about 35 yards from the Arsenal goal for a Mikel Merino foul. The ball is floated into the penalty area but drifts straight into the waiting gloves of David Raya.
17 min: A heavy touch from Declan Rice means he has to lunge to win the ball back. He does exactly that a split-second before anyone in an Athletic shirt can get to it, in a state of affairs that suggests he’s already living on the edge after picking up his early yellow card. Careful now, Declan.
15 min: There’s not a great deal of interest going on in this match yet but a tip of the hat to Union St Gilloise striker Promise David, who has scored the first goal of this season’s Champions League proper from the penalty spot against PSV Eindhoven.
13 min: Alex Berenguer advances with the ball at his feet after Rice loses possession and wins a corner for Athletic. Nothing comes of the set-piece.
12 min: Athletic hurl a long throw into the Arsenal box, where Cristhian Mosquera heads clear.
11 min: Viktor Gyokeres runs on to a through ball from Rice and squares it but it’s cleared. The flag goes up for offside but I think the Swede was being played on by Aitor Parades. It doesn’t matter.
6 min: Athletic force Arsenal into a couple of important blocks before Declan Rice gets booked for a late challenge on Mikel Jauregizar that gives the hosts a free-kick in an excellent position just outside the penalty area. The ball is played a couple of feet sideways to Adama Boiro, whose shot towards goal is not high enough and blocked by one of his teammates. I’m going to go out on a limb and guess he was supposed to get out of the way.
4 min: A low Gabriel pass from deep is played straight to the feet of Aitor Paraedes and Athletic get their first chance to break forward. Riccardo Califiori is forced to step in and intercept as a low cross is played inside from the right towards Alex Berenguer.
2 min: There’s some early whistling from the home crowd as Arsenal hog the ball deep in their own half, with David Raya and the defenders in front of him pinging it around at a pace that can be best described as leisurely.
Athletic Bilbao v Arsenal is go …
1 min: Viktor Gyokeres gets the ball rolling for Arsenal, their players wearing a change strip of blue shirts, white shorts and white socks. Their hosts are in red and white striped shirts, black shorts and black socks.
Tonight’s captains: In the absence of Martin Odegaard, Gabriel skippers the Arsenal side, while Inaki Williams wears the armband for Athletic Bilbao. “Unique In The World” reads the banner draped across the front of the top tier of one stand in the stadium known locally as The Cathedral, in what is presumably a nod to the club’s “Basques only” recruitment policy. Of course, Arsenal have a few Basques of their own in Mikel Arteta, Mikel Merino and Martin Zubimendi.
Not long now: Both sets of players line up in the tunnel of Estadio de San Mames before being led out by Lithuanian referee Donatas Rumsas and his team of match officials. The long and winding road to Budapest starts here, with just the 144 Champions League football matches to be played before we even get to first of the knockout stages in February.
Champions League jeopardy (or the lack thereof): While there’s no reason tonight’s match shouldn’t be a good one and I appreciate I’m probably supposed to talk it up, the new and “improved” Champions League format means there’s not a great deal at stake at Estadio de San Mames tonight.
When you consider that Paris Saint-Germain drew one and lost three of their first five games last season before going on to win the tournament, both sides here can easily afford to lose without it costing them a second thought. Is that really how things should be in the opening matches of Uefa’s flagship club football tournament?
Mikel Arteta: “We were very unlucky”
During his media briefing yesterday, Mikel Arteta reflected on Arsenal’s run to the semi-finals last season and assessed his side’s chances of actually winning the Champions League for the first time. “We were very unlucky in the semi-final [against PSG] not to get through,” he said. “You take a lot of learnings from that. It’s not only what we feel but the expectations that we have created that we can go all the way. We showed a very good level of consistency to reach that.
“We know it’s going to be a really long journey. You have to give yourself the best chance to win the game. We are good enough to compete with any opposition on the day. You have to have two things go your way – you have to have a have a full squad available and have to put the ball in the net when chances come your way.”
Arsenal’s goalkeeper David Raya was put up for interview in Bilbao and asked if Arsenal’s players are talking about the possibility of winning this season’s Champions League. “We are, we have belief,” he said. “We want to win, we are Arsenal and we play to win, no doubt. That’s what we play football for. It’s a long journey in the Champions League and the Premier League.”
On his Athletic counterpart Unai Simon: “We played against each other in pre-season,” he said. “We haven’t talked too much about it but as a goalkeeper, there is no need to say what I think about him. He is an amazing goalkeeper. He is a guarantee here and in the national team.”
Tonight’s match officials
Athletic Bilbao v Arsenal line-ups
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Mosquera, Gabriel, Calafiori, Zubimendi, Rice, Merino, Madueke, Eze, Gyokeres.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Setford, Saliba, Hincapie, Martinelli, Norgaard, Trossard, Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman.
Athletic Bilbao: Unai Simon, Gorosabel, Vivian, Paredes, Adama, Vesga, Jauregizar, Williams, O. Sancet, Navarro, Berenguer.
Subs: M.Santos, Padilla, Guruzeta, Areso, Lekue, Galarreta, Yuri, Unai G, Maroan, Nico Serrano, Regi, Jon De Luis
The big interview: Unai Simón
Athletic Club’s goalkeeper on hosting Arsenal in the Champions League, the magic of San Mamés and how his mum is a regular on Athletic away trips, even if she can’t bear the stress of watching any of her son’s games. Our man at the Lezama training ground: Sid Lowe.
Arsenal: Mikel Arteta has said he wants to change Arsenal’s European fortunes and finally lead them to a Champion League title, with their semi-final last season providing the proof they are good enough and the pain that could push them a step further. Sid Lowe reports from Bilbao …
Arsenal team news
Declan Rice comes into midfield in place of Martin Odegaard in the only change to the line-up that started against Nottingham Forest. As expected, William Saliba starts on the bench, where young Max Dowman is also among the substitutes. Christian Nogaard is also in the Arsenal squad, having missed out on Saturday with a knock.
Arsenal: Raya, Timber, Mosquera, Gabriel, Calafiori, Zubimendi, Rice, Merino, Madueke, Eze, Gyokeres.
Subs: Arrizabalaga, Setford, Saliba, Hincapie, Martinelli, Norgaard, Trossard, Nwaneri, Lewis-Skelly, Dowman.
Arsenal’s league phase opponents: Athletic Bilbao (a), Olympiakos (h), Atletico Madrid (h), Slavia Prague (a), Bayern Munich (h), Club Brugge (a), Inter (a), Kairat Almaty (h).
Athletic Club’s league phase opponents: Arsenal (h), Borussia Dortmund (a), FK Qarabag (h), Newcastle United (a), Slavia Prague (a), Paris Saint-Germain (h), Atalanta (a), Sporting (h).
Points required: It’s only a guide from a sample size that couldn’t be smaller, but the three lowest ranked teams to qualify for last season’s knockout phase playoffs scraped through with 11 points each from their eight league phase games. A fourth team, Dinamo Zagreb, also got 11 points but missed out on goal difference.
Aston Villa were the lowest ranked of the top eight teams to avoid a playoff and advance straight to the Round of 16. They did so with 16 points.
Early team news
Bukayo Saka, Gabriel Jesus, Ben White and Kai Havertz remain sidelined for Arsenal, while captain Martin Odegaard is also unavailable after the recurrence of his shoulder injury. William Saliba is in the squad after recovering from the ankle injury that kept him out of Saturday’s match but with an an arguably far more important contest to come in the Premier League against Manchester City on Sunday, Arteta may not risk the Frenchman, whose replacement Cristhian Mosquera, proved a more than capable deputy against toothless Forest.
Athletic will have to make do without their left-winger Nico Williams, a recent Arsenal and Barcelona target before he signed an eight-year contract extension with his boyhood club during the summer. Midfielder Benat Predo and central defender Unai Egiluz are also injured.
The Spanish side’s veteran centre-back, Yeray Alvarez, also misses out as he continues a 10-month doping ban after testing positive for an illegal diuretic following his side’s defeat in the Europa League semi-final last season. Yeray’s suspension has been backdated to June and while Uefa accepted that he ingested the banned substance in error through the use of medication, he was found guilty of committing a “non-intentional anti-doping rule violation” and must serve his time.
Champions League: Athletic Bilbao v Arsenal
Having gone out in the semi-finals to Paris Saint-Germain, the eventual winners, last season, Arsenal kick off their latest Champions League campaign with a visit to Athletic Bilbao. Managed by Ernesto Valverde, in his third spell in charge of the club he represented 170 times as a player, the Basque club have won their first three games of the La Liga season but suffered their first reverse on Saturday in defeat at home to Alaves. They are competing in the Champions League for the first time since 2014 and for only the third time since Uefa pivoted away the old-style knockout European Cup format in 1992. Ah, those were the days … yells old man at cloud.
Like their hosts, Arsenal have three wins and one defeat behind them on the domestic front and could scarcely have hoped for a more straightforward victory than the one they enjoyed at home to Nottingham Forest three days ago. Apart from losing Martin Odegaard to a shoulder injury, things could scarcely have gone more swimmingly for Mikel Arteta’s side as they built up to tonight’s match at the San Mames Stadium. Kick-off in the first competitive match between these sides is at 5.45pm (BST) but we’ll have team news and build-up in the meantime.
Comment ×