{"id":282,"date":"2026-03-18T05:17:31","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:17:31","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/osport.com.ng\/?p=282"},"modified":"2026-03-18T05:17:31","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T05:17:31","slug":"arsenal-or-bayern-munich-bayer-leverkusen-manager-names-his-champions-league-favourite-football","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/?p=282","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal or Bayern Munich? Bayer Leverkusen manager names his Champions League favourite | Football"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" width=\"646\" height=\"354\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/Kasper-Hjulmand-2188.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27502867\" alt=\"\" decoding=\"sync\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Kasper Hjulmand insists Arsenal are one of the frontrunners to win the Champions League this season<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Bayer Leverkusen head coach Kasper Hjulmand believes Arsenal and Bayern Munich remain the two standout candidates to win the Champions League this season.<\/p>\n<p>Goals from Eberechi Eze and Declan Rice sealed Arsenal\u2019s 2-0 win over Leverkusen on Tuesday night and Mikel Arteta\u2019s side will now play Sporting CP in the Champions League quarter-final after their epic comeback against Bodo\/Glimt in Portugal.<\/p>\n<p>Bayern, meanwhile, already have one foot in the last eight of the Champions League following their 6-1 win away to Atalanta last week and will play the Italian side in their second leg on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n<p>Hjulmand has extensive experience of facing both Arsenal and Bayern this season, with his side drawing 1-1 against Vincent Kompany\u2019s men last Saturday before their 2-0 defeat at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday evening.<\/p>\n<p>Speaking after his side\u2019s Champions League exit, Hjulmand was asked if he believes Arsenal can go all the way in the competition this season.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"img-container shareable-item wp-caption\">\n<div class=\"img-wrap\">\n\t\t<img width=\"646\" height=\"430\" src=\"https:\/\/metro.co.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/SEI_289896374-a1f1.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;w=646\" class=\"article-image wp-image-27503231\" alt=\"LONDON, ENGLAND - MARCH 17: Eberechi Eze of Arsenal celebrates with teammates Declan Rice, Ben White, William Saliba, Bukayo Saka, Piero Hincapie and Viktor Gyokeres after scoring his team's first goal during the UEFA Champions League 2025\/26 Round of 16 Second Leg match between Arsenal FC and Bayer 04 Leverkusen at Arsenal Stadium on March 17, 2026 in London, England. (Photo by Alex Burstow\/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\t<\/div><figcaption>Arsenal will now play Sporting CP in the Champions League quarter-final (Getty)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>\u2018Yeah, I think they could,\u2019 Hjulmand said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\" data-ico=\"factbox_article\" data-track-module=\"factbox_article\">\n<h2 class=\"factbox-title\">\n<p>\t\t\t\tYour football fix\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<div class=\"factbox-content\">\n<p><strong>Metro<\/strong>&#8216;s Head of Sport James Goldman delivers punchy analysis, transfer talk and his take on the week&#8217;s biggest stories direct to your inbox every week.<\/p>\n<p>Sign up here, it&#8217;s an open goal.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u2018You can see in the Premier League as well, their lead, the fewest goals against them, the highest number of goal scored, so it\u2019s not a coincidence, and when you structure your game like this it\u2019s very difficult.<\/p>\n<div class=\"factbox\" data-ico=\"factbox_article\" data-track-module=\"factbox_article\">\n<h2 class=\"factbox-title\">\n<p>\t\t\t\tChampions League quarter-final draw\t\t\t<\/h2>\n<div class=\"factbox-content\">\n<p>Paris Saint-Germain vs Galatasaray or Liverpool<\/p>\n<p>Real Madrid vs Atalanta or Bayern Munich<\/p>\n<p>Newcastle United or Barcelona vs Atletico Madrid or Tottenham<\/p>\n<p>Sporting CP vs Arsenal<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>\u2018But I also think Bayern is a very different type of game. They do it differently, Bayern, and they\u2019re a very, very high level.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018I would say it\u2019s head to head, but there are also other teams in the competition like Paris and Real Madrid. So it\u2019s a tight number of teams and in one game you never know what happens, in two games, in football, and it\u2019s about being ready on the night.<\/p>\n<p>\u2018But they are definitely\u2026 in a tournament like the Premier League I can see why they do so well.\u2019<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>For more stories like this,\u00a0check our sport page<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"\"><strong>Follow Metro Sport for the latest news on <meta charset=\"utf-8\"\/><br \/>\n<strong>Facebook, <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/Metro_Sport\">Twitter<\/a> and\u00a0Instagram<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: \u2018Never going to work\u2019 \u2013 Owen Hargreaves slams Chelsea decision after PSG thumping<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Pep Guardiola makes Arsenal and Liverpool claim after Man City\u2019s Champions League exit<\/span><\/p>\n<p class=\"metro-more-link\"><svg><title>Arrow<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#common-right-arrow\" href=\"#common-right-arrow\"\/><\/svg><span class=\"mor-link\" data-track-module=\"mor-link_article\">MORE: Arsenal star Declan Rice sends message to Man City ahead of Carabao Cup final<\/span><\/p>\n<section id=\"share-buttons-bottom\" class=\"share-buttons share-buttons-bottom\">\n\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Comment now<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-comment\" href=\"#social-comment\"\/><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-comments__label\">Comments<\/span><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t<span><svg><title>Add Metro as a Preferred Source on Google<\/title>\n<use xlink:href=\"#social-preferred-source\" href=\"#social-preferred-source\"\/><\/svg><\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t<span class=\"share-bar-preferred-source__label\">Add as preferred source<\/span><br \/>\n\t\t\t<\/section>\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card accent--sport\">\n<div class=\"newsletter-end-card__inner\">\n<h4>Football Newsletter \u2013 In The Mixer<\/h4>\n<p>Punchy analysis, transfer talk and more from Metro&#8217;s football experts, sent straight to your inbox every week.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><script async src=\"\/\/www.instagram.com\/embed.js\"><\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Kasper Hjulmand insists Arsenal are one of the frontrunners to win the Champions League this<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":283,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-282","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=282"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/282\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/283"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/osport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}