After an impressive showing in the UEFA Champions League earlier in the week, Barcelona finished off the seven day stretch with some slightly disappointing news. The treble winners from last year will have to battle it out with one of the Premier League’s best this season. The featured match of the quarterfinals is Arsenal-Barcelona and there are a lot of fascinating stories behind the two teams.
The first story is of course about Arsenal’s star midfielder Cesc Fabregas. The Spanish star grew up in Barcelona and has always been a huge fan of the organization. Apparently they like the guy too and often in the last few transfer windows it has been rumored that they would steal away the star. The move never materialized though and Barcelona even claimed that they were not interested in Fabregas right now. Well I’m sure they wouldn’t mind having the MVP, but I think what they meant to say was that Fabregas would be too expensive to afford to buy.
The second fascinating story about the two sides is the old lion Thierry Henry. A former star of the Gunners and now a player finishing out his career with Barcelona. It has to give Gunner fans a bad taste in the mouth to see their former superstar as a role player and not a featured goal scorer. Especially considering Arsenal’s desperation for a quality striker this season. But Henry will return to the Arsenal faithful much like Beckham’s own return to Old Trafford. Much like that scenario this is likely the last time that a legend will visit his old stomping ground as a player.
And the final story of the match-up is goals, goals, and more goals. In other words these teams are fun to watch.
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