Arsenal to progress? Roy Keane predicts which teams will reach Champions League final

Manchester United legend Roy Keane has backed Arsenal and Barcelona to come through their Champions League semi-finals to reach this year’s showpiece in Munich.

Mikel Arteta’s men signalled their intent in this year’s competition with an emphatic 5-1 victory on aggregate over Real Madrid – the holders and record 15-time winners.

Declan Rice got Arsenal off to a dream start in the tie with a pair of phenomenal free-kicks to inspire a 3-0 win at the Emirates, in which Mikel Merino also netted, before Bukayo Saka and Gabriel Martinelli struck in a 2-1 defeat of Los Blancos in Madrid.

It’s been 16 years since Arsenal last reached the semi-finals of Europe’s top-tier tournament. Manchester United brought their campaign to a halt in 2009 and PSG will aim to stop the Gunners in their tracks this time around.

The north Londoners have never before lifted the prestigious trophy in their history, but came mightily close in 2006, only for Barcelona to complete a stunning comeback to beat them in Paris.

‘We’re talking about the quarter-finals, Real Madrid, a team that is built simply to win this competition and we beat them,’ ex-Arsenal striker Wright said of Arsenal’s semi-final triumph on the latest episode of The Overlap.

‘Why shouldn’t we be happy about that? 5-1, two legs, you can’t play that down. You have to think they can win it.

‘I know that PSG haven’t beaten them before but that’s a different PSG.

‘And I think Arsenal are different from the time they played that time.’

Former Manchester United captain Keane chimed in: ‘Arsenal v Barcelona final, it’s got it written all over it.’

According to Keane, Madrid were their own worst enemy with a ‘crazy’ lack of composure and discipline in the second leg.

‘How crazy were Real? Just booting everybody, weren’t they?’ he added.

‘They were just diving in, dragging people down, getting no momentum. That was stopping them from getting momentum!’

Keane went on to single out Rice for special praise, suggesting opposition players were struggling to match the Arsenal and England midfielder for power.

‘The couple of goals in the first leg were amazing, that gets you talking about him. Putting the ball in the back of the net takes you to another level,’ the seven-time Premier League winner continued.

‘But at the moment he does look more powerful than all the other midfielders around him.

‘He’s running past people. For all his technical stuff, he does look very powerful.’

Wright, meanwhile, has been blown away by Saka’s level of performance, with the two legs falling just four months after the forward underwent surgery on a serious hamstring injury.

‘Madrid didn’t seem to rally at any stage in the game and I thought we defended really well, [Jakub] Kiwior and that,’ Wright said.

‘[Thomas] Partey and Rice were good, but good forward… Saka, coming back, he’s not even majorly fit and still doing it!’

The former Arsenal and England forward went on: ‘I saw something really interesting about the final being at Bayern Munich.

‘Teams that are going there for the first time to try and win it… the last four teams have done that, winning it the first time at Bayern Munich. At the moment, that’s PSG and Arsenal.

‘It’s a stage of the competition where you are very nervous because it comes down to the players, what they do now, because they are so close.

‘You have to think Inter Milan being in and around it, that’s going to be a tough one. All of them!’

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