{"id":3377,"date":"2026-04-07T20:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T20:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=3377"},"modified":"2026-04-07T20:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T20:40:10","slug":"gareth-barry-names-club-that-will-deny-arsenal-the-champions-league-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/?p=3377","title":{"rendered":"Gareth Barry names club that will deny Arsenal the Champions League | 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=\"411\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/barry-fe18.png?w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27883379\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"sync\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Former Premier League midfielder Gareth Barry (Picture: YouTube)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Premier League legend Gareth Barry has backed Arsenal to reach the Champions League final but believes they will miss out on the trophy.<\/p>\n<p>The Gunners finished top of the Champions League group stage with a flawless record of eight successive wins.<\/p>\n<p>Mikel Arteta\u2019s side beat Bayer Leverkusen in the last round and meet Portuguese champions Sporting in the quarter-finals.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal travel to Lisbon on Tuesday night for the first leg, before the Emirates Stadium hosts the decisive return leg next Wednesday.<\/p>\n<p>The Gunners are favourites to progress at the expense of Sporting despite suffering back-to-back defeats, losing to Manchester City in the Carabao Cup final and then crashing out of the FA Cup against Championship side Southampton.<\/p>\n<p>If Arsenal to advance, they will face La Liga giants Barcelona or Atletico Madrid in the semi-finals, and ex-Premier League midfielder Barry expects them to reach the final.<\/p>\n<p>The other side of the draw involves European powerhouses Real Madrid, Bayern Munich, Liverpool and Champions League holders PSG.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"594\" height=\"396\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2270110036.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=594\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27883591\" alt=\"Arsenal FC Training Session And Press Conference - UEFA Champions League 2025\/26 Quarter-Final First Leg\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Mikel Arteta ahead of Arsenal\u2019s Champions League quarter-final (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Barry believes PSG will reach the final from that side of the draw and says he would fancy the French champions to \u2018edge\u2019 out Arsenal for the trophy.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018In the last round, PSG did look really good, back to the form of last year,\u2019 Barry told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.boylesports.com\/sports\/football\">BoyleSports<\/a>. \u2018They\u2019ve grown into it and look back to their best.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I think Arsenal and PSG are the two that I fancy possibly going all the way.\u00a0 Winning the title would massively take the pressure off Arsenal and they\u2019d probably go into that game feeling a lot better about themselves and have a much better chance of winning it.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"594\" height=\"402\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/GettyImages-2269898323.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=594\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27883612\" alt=\"Paris Saint-Germain v Toulouse FC - Ligue 1 McDonald's\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>PSG are the Champions League holders (Picture: Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018Arsenal vs PSG would be a tough final, but I think PSG, they\u2019ve got players that are made for those big, big games, so I\u2019d probably edge towards them.\u2019<\/p>\n<p>The Gunners has aspirations of clinching a historic quadruple a matter of weeks ago but fell short in the two domestic cup competitions.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal boast a nine-point lead in the Premier League title race and still have a chance to lift the Champions League for the first time in the club\u2019s history.<\/p>\n<p>But ex-Arsenal captain William Gallas cannot see his former club becoming European champions, claiming the Premier League title will be the only trophy Arteta gets his hands on this season.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I think Arsenal will win one trophy and that\u2019s the Premier League,\u2019 Gallas said.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018They still have to be careful but normally they would win the Premier League from this position. Champions League? I don\u2019t think so.\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: Alan Smith backs Arsenal star to shine in place of Bukayo Saka against Sporting<\/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: Ray Parlour claims Chelsea legend Frank Lampard \u2018couldn\u2019t turn down\u2019 shock Premier League job<\/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: Ray Parlour urges Mikel Arteta to drop Arsenal star in Champions League<\/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>Former Premier League midfielder Gareth Barry (Picture: YouTube) Premier League legend Gareth Barry has backed Arsenal to reach the Champions League final but believes they will miss out on the trophy. The Gunners finished top of the Champions League group stage with a flawless record of eight successive wins. Mikel Arteta\u2019s side beat Bayer Leverkusen [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":3378,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-3377","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\/3377","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=3377"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3377\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/3378"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3377"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3377"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sportings.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3377"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}