{"id":2503,"date":"2026-04-05T13:36:11","date_gmt":"2026-04-05T13:36:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=2503"},"modified":"2026-04-05T13:36:11","modified_gmt":"2026-04-05T13:36:11","slug":"micah-richards-claims-arsenal-would-absolutely-batter-champions-league-giants-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=2503","title":{"rendered":"Micah Richards claims Arsenal would \u2018absolutely batter\u2019 Champions League giants | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"646\" height=\"357\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Micah-Richards-d432.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27542548\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"sync\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Micah Richards claims Arsenal would expose Barcelona\u2019s high defensive line (The Rest Is Football)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Micah Richards believes Arsenal would \u2018batter\u2019 Barcelona if they met in the Champions League semi-final.<\/p>\n<p>Mikel Arteta\u2019s side secured their place in the Champions League quarter-final with a 3-1 aggregate win against Bayer Leverkusen last month and they will now face Sporting CP in the first leg on Tuesday night.<\/p>\n<p>If Arsenal beat the Portuguese side, they will then play either Barcelona or Atletico Madrid for a place in the Champions League final on May 30.<\/p>\n<p>Barcelona produced a brilliant second-half display to seal a 7-2 win against Newcastle United in the second leg of their Round of 16 clash but Richards claims the La Liga leaders would be convincingly beaten by Arsenal if they played the same high defensive line.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"594\" height=\"400\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/GettyImages-2267210326.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=594\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27518467\" alt=\"Arsenal FC v Bayer 04 Leverkusen - UEFA Champions League 2025\/26 Round of 16 Second Leg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Arsenal will play Sporting CP in the Champions League quarter-final (Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018When you look at the Premier League, Man City have been off, we\u2019ve talked about Chelsea and Liverpool, Man United are coming back stronger now, this is an opportunity for them (Arsenal) to capitalise on two big trophies,\u2019 Richards told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=JR1JUqhYuFU\">The Rest Is Football<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I look at the Champions League and the way Arsenal play defensively, I said it a couple of weeks ago, they can win it, they would be one of my favourites, they have a better chance to win that because defensively and they always nick a goal.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\" data-ico=\"factbox_article\" data-track-module=\"factbox_article\">\n<h2 class=\"factbox-title\">\n<p>\t\t\t\tGet your football fix\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<div class=\"factbox-content\">\n<p><strong>Metro<\/strong>&#8216;s weekly newsletter In The Mixer delivers punchy analysis and breakdowns of the biggest football stories directly to your inbox.<\/p>\n<p>Sign up here, it&#8217;s an open goal.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u2018With the Premier League, I thought it would be closer now and I thought it would go to the Man City game but they\u2019ve got the little edge on that now.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"808\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Champions-League-quarter-final-draw-d72f.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27523159\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>The Champions League quarter-final draw (UEFA)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018If you\u2019re looking at Arsenal\u2019s potential route to the Champions League final you\u2019d take that all day and then you\u2019re thinking you\u2019ve got that little buffer in the Premier League.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Arsenal would beat Barcelona. If Barcelona play that high line then Arsenal would absolutely batter them.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018If they take it back five yards, Barcelona could absolutely batter Arsenal.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018Martinelli, 100 per cent, would absolutely love to play against that without doubt. Even Gyokeres, he\u2019s not the quickest but he\u2019s a strong runner, all his goals before at Sporting, that\u2019s what he used to do, so I think if they play a high line against Arsenal, Arsenal would absolutely batter them.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this,\u00a0check our sport page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on <meta charset=\"utf-8\"\/><br \/>\n<strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sportmetro\">Facebook<\/a>, <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Metro_Sport\">Twitter<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/metrosportuk\/\">Instagram<\/a><\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Newcastle told to sign former Man Utd and Chelsea target to replace Nick Woltemade<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Dominik Szoboszlai angers Liverpool fans with gesture after Manchester City defeat in FA Cup<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Gabriel Magalhaes injury update after Arsenal star limps off in FA Cup disaster<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom\"><a class=\"metro-button share-bar-comments\" data-vars-position=\"bottom\" href=\"#metro-comments-container\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Comment now<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-comment\" href=\"#social-comment\"\/><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t<\/a><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-preferred-source\" href=\"#social-preferred-source\"\/><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card accent--sport\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card__inner\">\n<h4>Football Newsletter \u2013 In The Mixer<\/h4>\n<p>Punchy analysis, transfer talk and more from Metro&#8217;s football experts, sent straight to your inbox every week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Micah Richards claims Arsenal would expose Barcelona\u2019s high defensive line (The Rest Is Football) Micah Richards believes Arsenal would \u2018batter\u2019 Barcelona if they met in the Champions League semi-final. Mikel Arteta\u2019s side secured their place in the Champions League quarter-final with a 3-1 aggregate win against Bayer Leverkusen last month and they will now face [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2504,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2503","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2503"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2503\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2504"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2503"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2503"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2503"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}