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  "path": "/2026/03/19/micah-richards-claims-arsenal-absolutely-batter-potential-champions-league-opponent-27542505/",
  "publishedAt": "2026-03-19T20:40:32.000Z",
  "site": "https://metro.co.uk",
  "tags": [
    "Football",
    "Sport",
    "Arsenal",
    "Champions League",
    "FC Barcelona",
    "Micah Richards",
    "Mikel Arteta",
    "Premier League",
    "Barcelona",
    "Carabao Cup",
    "The Rest Is Football",
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    "Man City",
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  "textContent": "Micah Richards claims Arsenal would expose Barcelona’s high defensive line (The Rest Is Football)\n\nMicah Richards believes Arsenal would ‘batter’ Barcelona if they met in the Champions League semi-final.\n\nMikel Arteta’s side secured their place in the Champions League quarter-final with a 2-0 win against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday night and they will now face Sporting CP.\n\nIf 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.\n\nBarcelona produced a brilliant second-half display to seal a 7-2 win against Newcastle United this week but Richards claims the La Liga leaders would be convincingly beaten by Arsenal if they played the same high defensive line.\n\nRichards also believes Arsenal ‘would not lose sleep’ if they were beaten by Manchester City in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final.\n\n‘Arsenal are not going to approach the game [the Carabao Cup final] and play a second-string team, not at all,’ Richards told The Rest Is Football.\n\nArsenal will play Sporting CP in the Champions League quarter-final (Getty)\n\n##  Your football fix\n\n**Metro** 's Head of Sport James Goldman delivers punchy analysis, transfer talk and his take on the week's biggest stories direct to your inbox every week.\n\nSign up here, it's an open goal.\n\n‘When you look at the Premier League, Man City have been off, we’ve 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.\n\n‘I 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.\n\n‘With the Premier League, I thought it would be closer now and I thought it would go to the Man City game but they’ve got the little edge on that now.\n\nThe Champions League quarter-final draw (UEFA)\n\n‘If you’re looking at Arsenal’s potential route to the Champions League final you’d take that all day and then you’re thinking you’ve got that little buffer in the Premier League, I’d be look at the League Cup thinking it’s a trophy but it’s not the biggest trophy. If they were to lose that, I wouldn’t be losing sleep over it because they are in a perfect position now to win two humungous trophies.\n\n‘Arsenal would beat Barcelona. If Barcelona play that high line then Arsenal would absolutely batter them.\n\n‘If they take it back five yards, Barcelona could absolutely batter Arsenal.\n\n‘Martinelli, 100 per cent, would absolutely love to play against that without doubt. Even Gyokeres, he’s not the quickest but he’s a strong runner, all his goals before at Sporting, that’s what he used to do, so I think if they play a high line against Arsenal, Arsenal would absolutely batter them.’\n\n**For more stories like this, check our sport page**.\n\n**Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on**Facebook,** Twitter and Instagram**.\n\nComment now Comments \nAdd Metro as a Preferred Source on Google\nAdd as preferred source\n",
  "title": "Micah Richards claims Arsenal would ‘absolutely batter’ potential Champions League opponent"
}