Arsenal could sell tickets to more than 60,000 home fans for their first
Champions League quarter-final in 14 years. Bayern Munich supporters have been banned from attending the second leg of their last-eight tie after fireworks were thrown from the away section of the Stadio Olimpico during their 3-1 win over Lazio. Arsenal’s home leg is expected to be played on Wednesday 17 April, although that is yet to be confirmed due to the awkwardness of the Gunners having their
Premier League fixture against Aston Villa, who play on the previous Thursday, moved to the Sunday afternoon. Uefa are yet to finalise exact dates, and i understands
Arsenal are also awaiting confirmation from the European
Football authority about ticketing regulations for the game, but hope to be able to ignite a cauldron-like atmosphere by being able to put a home fan in every seat. Read Next The curious case of Ben White - loved at Arsenal, unhappy with
England “[The Emirates] is a different animal now. So we were fed that it was the promised land when we went there. And we haven’t yet seen that atmosphere,” Martin Keown said. “But the last two seasons, the team [and] the fans are always playing a part. “It’s always in tandem. They’re good judges. And when they’ve got a team that makes them respond, it works together. So that symmetry is back. It is united again. “And it’s a set of fans who were brought up on success they’re still young enough, aren’t they? They’re old enough and young enough to see what was there before and they maybe taste it coming again.” A percentage of Arsenal fans will not even have been born the last time their side reached the last eight of the Champions League. It was 14 years ago in 2010 when Arsene Wenger’s side came up against
Barcelona, coming back from 2-0 down to draw at the Emirates and even taking the lead in
Catalonia through Nicklas Bendtner before four goals from
Lionel Messi broke Gunners hearts. It would be even more heart-breaking for Arsenal supporters if Bayern’s own talisman were to provide the winning goals this time around, given Harry Kane, formerly of bitter rivals
Tottenham Hotspur, is their top-scorer this season with 30 in the league and another six in European competition. But whatever the result, there will be no Bayern fans there to witness it, a harsher punishment than a mere fine on the grounds that the club were already on probation after a similar pyrotechnic incident against Copenhagen earlier this season. Bayern CEO Jan-Christian Dreesen said: “This was such an explicit violation of the conditions of probation that an appeal is unfortunately futile. “The fact we now have to play away without the support of our fans is a big blow. A small group of individual offenders have done a disservice to all our supporters and the team.”