Bayer Leverkusen boss Kasper Hjulmand has hailed Arsenal as ‘perhaps the best team in Europe’ ahead of their Champions League knockout game.
Premier League leaders Arsenal travel to Germany on Wednesday evening to face Bundesliga side Leverkusen in the first leg of their last-16 tie.
The Gunners are enjoying a sensational season under Mikel Arteta, moving seven points clear at the top of the Premier League and also topping the Champions League group phase with eight straight wins.
Leverkusen, who are only sixth in the Bundesliga, finished 16th in the league phase before a relatively comfortable play-off with over Greek side Olympiakos.
As well as challenging for both the Premier League and Champions League, Arsenal have also booked a place in this month’s Carabao Cup final and moved into the quarter-finals of the FA Cup.
Leverkusen head coach Hjulmand rates Arsenal as ‘perhaps the best team in Europe’ but insists he is still ‘really looking’ to taking on Arteta’s side in the Champions League.
‘Arsenal are perhaps the best team in Europe at the moment,’ said Hjulmand, who took over at Bayer Leverkusen last year after four years in charge of the Denmark national team.
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‘They finished first in the league phase of the Champions League and won all their games, scored the most goals and conceded the fewest.
‘It’s one of the most difficult challenges, but we’re really looking forward to it. We want to enjoy big games like this together with our fans.
‘We’ve already shown this season against many big teams like Manchester City, Borussia Dortmund and RB Leipzig that we can beat them. As we all know, anything is possible in football.
‘You just have to believe in it. This belief in yourself is extremely important. That’s why we’re going into the game with confidence and we’ll give everything at home to get a good result for the second leg.’
Arsenal forward Kai Havertz started his career at Bayer Leverkusen and is wary of the threat the German side will pose in Europe.
‘It is amazing [to be back at Leverkusen], I have seen a lot of familiar faces,’ said Havertz, who has missed much of the season through injury.
‘It feels like yesterday I was here but it was six years ago. I played here for ten years.
‘I am here to win the match with Arsenal and fly back home with the victory. My family will be here; my son, my wife have come from England.
‘I know myself how tough Leverkusen are to beat. They are a very good team.
‘We think about [the first leg], to win that game and then go again at the weekend. And then face them in the second leg. That’s all that we’re thinking about.’
Arsenal are one of the favourites to win the Champions League but Arteta has urged his team to ‘live in the present’ and not look too far into the future.
‘I live in the present and I prepare for what I expect and what I feel every single day with optimism,’ he said in his pre-match press conference.
‘Putting everything that I have in, and trying to transmit and inspire those players to feel the same way. And then this is football.
‘We have to do it. There is so much to do. There is a lot that we have done, but the important part is coming now and it starts tomorrow.’
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