Bayern and Arsenal will have, respectively, Jamal Musiala (21 years old) and Bukayo Saka (22 years old), great hopes of European football, this Wednesday at 4pm (Brasília time), in Munich, on quarter-final return gamelooking to qualify for the Champions League semi-finals.
After an intense and spectacular first game, full of alternatives and which ended in a 2-2 draw, everything is open in this duel whose winner will face Manchester City or Real Madrid in the semi-finals.
Dethroned by Leverkusen in the Bundesliga, Bayern sees the main European competition as its salvation this season. However, the Bavarian giant, six-time European champion, has not reached the semi-finals since its last title, in 2020.
“The most important thing for us is that we still have the opportunity to turn our season into a great season,” said Bayern’s English striker Harry Kane on Tuesday.
At that time, Jamal Musiala was still ‘Bambi’, a nickname he received in his adolescence.
The Stuttgart-born striker, who moved to England with his family as a child, always showed signs of his precocity: in Chelsea’s under-18 team at the age of 15, a Bayern player and captain of the England under-17 team (in which played with the current ‘Gunners’, goalkeeper Aaron Ramsdale and striker Eddie Nketiah) at age 17, and called up to the German national team at 18.
Since then, he has continued to gain prominence in Bayern’s game, ending the 2022-2023 season with an 88th-minute goal in Cologne that secured the eleventh consecutive Bundesliga title, becoming a club idol at just 20 years old.
Slowed down at the start of the season because of an injury, he had a great performance in March with four goals and three assists in the championship and two assists for the national team.
On the opposite side, Bukayo Saka is just 22 years old, but has extensive experience in both the Premier League (165 games) and the English national team (32 games).
First round for Saka
He just needed to shine in the Champions League to be able to sit at the same table with the best players on the continent. And now he can be proud of it.
The Londoner had not yet debuted for Arsenal’s first team, the club that revealed him, when the ‘Gunners’ last competed in the most prestigious European competition, in 2017.
And it was precisely because of this lack of experience at the highest level that former England defender Rio Ferdinand did not include him in the group of “world class” players in February.
“I think Saka was incredible”, but “he didn’t do that in the Champions League, right?”
The Gunners’ number 7 responded to these words with a substantial improvement in his game and numbers.
It was a nightmare for Porto’s defense and they converted their penalty in the second leg of the round of 16 (1-0; 4-2 on penalties), despite the enormous pressure on their backs.
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Against Bayern, in the first leg, they opened the scoring in the first 15 minutes, which was a nightmare for Alphonso Davies (he received a yellow card in the 9th minute and will be left out of the second leg). And he won the distance duel against Musiala, who was more discreet.
Before returning to Germany, Saka was involved in eight goals (four scored and four assists) in the first eight games in European football’s premier club competition.
If he wins this Wednesday, the English player would be even closer to Wembley, the stadium for the final, with whom he has a score to settle. It was at the legendary stadium that he missed the penalty in the Euro Cup final lost to Italy (1-1; 3-2 on penalties) in 2021.
Saka faces the challenge of giving Arsenal the first Champions League in their history, at home. In Munich, Musiala will try to help Bayern break the quarter-final barrier in recent seasons; 2021 (defeat to PSG), 2022 (to Villarreal) and 2023 (to Manchester City).
Source: Gazetaesportiva
Kingston is an accomplished author and journalist, known for his in-depth and engaging writing on sports. He currently works as a writer at 247 News Agency, where he has established himself as a respected voice in the sports industry.
