Arsenal vs Real Madrid Matchday Stats Preview
This will be just the third meeting between Arsenal and Real Madrid in European competition, following their last 16 tie in the UEFA Champions League in 2005-06. Arsenal won 1-0 in the first leg away from home, before drawing 0-0 at Highbury in the second leg (1-0 on aggregate).
Since the start of the 2017-18 campaign, Real Madrid have played 22 matches against English sides in the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League (W11 D5 L6). This is 10 more than any other team against sides from a specific nation in this period, after Liverpool and Manchester City’s 12 meetings each with Spanish teams.
Real Madrid have beaten more different opponents than any other side in European Cup/UEFA Champions League history (111) – including seven different English sides – but Arsenal are not one of them (D1 L1). The only other English team to avoid defeat in their first three games against Real Madrid in the European Cup/Champions League are Liverpool (3).
Real Madrid haven’t lost the first leg in any of their last eight knockout stage ties in the UEFA Champions League (W5 D3); their joint-longest run in the competition in first leg meetings, along with another eight-game run between April 2016 and February 2019.
Arsenal have led for longer than any other team in UEFA Champions League matches this season (568 minutes overall), while only Internazionale (5 minutes) have trailed for fewer minutes than the Gunners (65) in the competition this term.
Arsenal rank first in the UEFA Champions League this season for xG against per game (0.88), while only Internazionale (0.2) have conceded fewer goals per game (0.6). Indeed, only in 2005-06 (runners-up) have Arsenal conceded fewer per match in a European Cup/UEFA Champions League campaign (0.31).
Real Madrid’s Kylian Mbappé has scored 10 goals in 16 games against English teams in the UEFA Champions League – four of which have come in two matches this season (against Manchester City in the play-off round). The only player to net more knockout stage goals against English sides in a single campaign is Karim Benzema, who scored seven for Real Madrid in 2021-22 (five games).
The only English player to start in a UEFA Champions League quarter-final while aged 18 or younger is Jude Bellingham (17 v Manchester City in April 2021), while Arsenal pair Myles Lewis-Skelly and Ethan Nwaneri could become the only players other than Bellingham to do so here (both aged 18).
Luka Modric has averaged 17.5 line-breaking passes per 90 in the UEFA Champions League this season; the most of any player with 500+ minutes played. Despite only playing 66 minutes against Atlético Madrid last time out, Fede Valverde (13 in 128 minutes) was the only player who made more line-breaking passes than Modric (12) on either side.
Two of the top five-ranked goalkeepers for goals prevented in the UEFA Champions League this season (based on xG on target faced, excluding OGs) could feature here, in the form of Arsenal’s David Raya (+3.7, 5th) and Real Madrid’s Thibaut Courtois (+4, 3rd).
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