Arsenal given Moscow trip

Tom Devlin 7 years ago 2.1k
Wenger's team face a taxing journey. AFP

The draw for the quarter finals of the Europa League took place on Friday afternoon and Arsenal were handed one of the more difficult ties possible with a trip to Russia now on the cards.

CSKA Moscow will provide a stern test for the 'Gunners' having already shocked Lyon in France to progress to this stage of the competition. 

Russia is never an easy place to go, the cold temeperatures, long journey teams and a hostile atmosphere have seen many teams fall after travelling east. Arsenal will go to Moscow on April 12th and face a Premier League match against Newcastle three days later. 

CSKA Moscow will have to contend with the travel for the first leg, which will take place on April 5th, and it could hamper their attempts to compete for the Russian title, where they are competing with local rivals Spartak and Lokomotiv.

Ahead of the World Cup, which has been much discussed, it will also pit a British team against Russia. Diplomatic relations have almost ceased to exist between the two countries recently following the Russian poisoning of a former spy on British soil. There had been talk that the England team may not attend the summer's World Cup in Russia. 

16 de março de 2018

Mentioned in the news story

CSKA Moskva
Europa League