Arsenal legend, Robert Pires is rooting for his former club, Arsenal to go all out and get to the final of the Europa league this season. He has also predicted their likely opponent in the final to be former Spanish champion, Atletico Madrid. Pires believes both sides will get to the final if they avoid Celtic on their road to the final.
Pires was an iconic member of Arsenal’s 49 games unbeaten run which went on to win the league in 2004. He was also part of the France 1998 world cup winning team.
In a recent interview with the Sun, he said: “Atletico and Arsenal are the favorites, for me this is the final in Lyon, they both have a lot of experience, especially in the Champions League. They just need to avoid each other and Celtic if they want to face each other in the final.”
Celtic will travel to Russia to play Zenit St Petersburg in the second leg of the round of 32 with a 1-0 home advantage thanks to Callum McGregor lone goal. The Bhoys will hope to get an away goal in Russia and beat the home side to the ticket for the next round of matches.
While railing praises on Celtic, Pires praised the atmosphere at Celtic Park as it has been supportive of its team all through the tournament and he called it “amazing”.
The 44-year-old said that; “I love Celtic, it is not easy for any team, especially in Celtic Park, the atmosphere is amazing. When you are a player, inside, playing against Celtic, it is a great atmosphere, it is still very close to the pitch, maybe only Liverpool has a similar atmosphere.”
Pires never played at Celtic Park during his professional days but was part of a testimonial for Stiliyan Petrov’s in 2013. It is left to be seen how far Celtic, Atletico Madrid and Arsenal will go in the tournament but it will be great if Pires finalist prediction can come to pass.
