Arsenal have been handed a potential boost for their Champions League quarter-final first leg against Bayern Munich as UEFA confirm they can sell tickets across the entire Emirates Stadium.
The German club will be without any away support after they accepted UEFA sanctions for their fans’ use of pyrotechnics.
This comes after their supporters used pyrotechnics in Rome against Lazio fans in the last-16 tie last month. Bayern have received a ban because they were initially handed a suspended sentence by UEFA for the use of pyrotechnics during a match at FC Copenhagen in the group stage.
Arsenal benefited heavily from the atmosphere that was created during their last-16 second leg against Porto at the Emirates.
Unlike in Premier League games, the entire stadium whistled and booed Porto players from the first minute of play and carried that through to the penalty shootout. Those were taken at the North Bank, the opposite end to where Porto’s away fans were sat.
It is not yet clear whether Arsenal will decide to sell those tickets, but Mikel Arteta is very tuned in to making the Emirates as much of a fortress as possible. This has been seen in his rallying cries before the Porto game and the club’s pre-match strategies to build the atmosphere inside the stadium.
The away allocation at Arsenal tends to be near 3,000, so that will be the rough amount of supporters who could benefit from Bayern Munich’s sanction.
(Stuart MacFarlane/Arsenal FC via Getty Images)
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