Micah Richards claims Arsenal would ‘absolutely batter’ potential Champions League opponent | Football

Micah Richards believes Arsenal would ‘batter’ Barcelona if they met in the Champions League semi-final.

Mikel 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.

If 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.

Barcelona 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.

Richards also believes Arsenal ‘would not lose sleep’ if they were beaten by Manchester City in Sunday’s Carabao Cup final.

‘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.

‘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.

‘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.

‘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.

‘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.

‘Arsenal would beat Barcelona. If Barcelona play that high line then Arsenal would absolutely batter them.

‘If they take it back five yards, Barcelona could absolutely batter Arsenal.

‘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.’

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