Villarreal seek revenge on Arsenal

Villarreal CF welcome Arsenal FC to El Madrigal for the first leg of their UEFA Champions League quarter-final aiming to avenge their semi-final defeat by the English club three seasons ago.

• The Spanish Liga side came within a step of reaching the final in what was a remarkable debut campaign in Europe's élite club competition in 2005/06.

• It proved the narrowest of victories for Arsenal who, leading 1-0 from the first leg in London thanks to Kolo Touré's strike, were indebted to goalkeeper Jens Lehmann for saving the last-minute Juan Román Riquelme penalty that would have taken the tie into extra time.

• Another close contest appears likely this time given Villarreal's unbeaten home record in the competition and their strong previous showings against English opposition – including two goalless draws with Manchester United FC in this season's group stage.

• Arsenal enter the tie as the more experienced European campaigners – this will be their fourth UEFA Champions League quarter-final in six years, and sixth overall – but they won only one of those previous ties, and suffered defeats in their last two away games in the competition.

• Villarreal reached their second UEFA Champions League quarter-final by beating Greek side Panathinaikos FC 3-2 on aggregate in the last 16 (1-1 home, 2-1 away). Prior to that Manuel Pellegrini's men had finished second in Group E with a record of W2 D3 L1.

• Arsenal advanced only after a nerve-shredding shoot-out against their last-16 opponents AS Roma, prevailing 7-6 on penalties after a 1-1 aggregate draw (1-0 home, 0-1 away). Prior to facing Roma, they had taken second place in Group G with a record of W3 D2 L1.

• Villarreal's record against English clubs is: P9 W3 D5 L1.

• At home their record is: P5 W2 D3 L0. In those five past meetings with English opposition at El Madrigal, they conceded just one goal (scored, curiously, by a Spaniard – Everton FC's Mikel Arteta).

• Pellegrini's team met Arsenal for the first time at Highbury on 19 April 2006 for the first leg of that season's semi-final. Touré's 41st-minute goal earned the Premier League side a 1-0 victory.

• The teams reconvened in Spain on 25 April for the goalless second leg – a result which earned Arsenal a 1-0 aggregate victory and a place in their first UEFA Champions League final.

• The full lineups for that second-leg tie at El Madrigal were:
Villarreal: Mariano Barbosa, Javi Venta, Juan Manuel Peña, Quique Álvarez, Rodolfo Arruabarrena (Roger García 82), Juan Román Riquelme, Josico (José María 63), Marcos Senna, Juan Sorín, Diego Forlán, Guillermo Franco.
Arsenal: Jens Lehmann, Emmanuel Eboué, Kolo Touré, Sol Campbell, Mathieu Flamini (Gaël Clichy 9), Gilberto Silva, Aleksandr Hleb, Cesc Fàbregas, Fredrik Ljungberg, José Antonio Reyes (Robert Pirès 69), Thierry Henry.

• A late substitute for Arsenal that evening, Robert Pirès left the London club to join Villarreal at the end of the 2005/06 season and is now in his third campaign with the Spanish side. Pirès was with Arsenal for six seasons during which he won two Premier League titles and two FA Cups. Voted the English Football Writers' Player of the Year in 2002, he made 284 appearances, scoring 84 goals.

• Arsenal went on to lose the 2006 UEFA Champions League final 2-1 against another Spanish outfit, FC Barcelona.

• That was the Gunners' third defeat against opponents from Spain in a UEFA final. They lost 5-4 on penalties to Valencia CF following a goalless draw in the 1979/80 UEFA Cup Winners' Cup final and succumbed 2-1 to Real Zaragoza in the final of the same competition in 1994/95.

• Arsenal's overall record against Spanish sides is: W8 D5 L10, with that final meeting against Valencia counted as a draw.

• In Spain, their record is: W2 D2 L6.

• Arsenal were 3-1 losers at Sevilla FC on their most recent visit to Spain for a group-stage fixture on 27 November 2007. Eduardo da Silva opened the scoring for the London club that night but Sevilla hit back through goals from Seydou Keita, Luis Fabiano and Frédéric Kanouté.

• Besides Pirès, another ex-Gunner in the Villarreal squad is Pascal Cygan. The defender made 63 Premier League appearances in his four years at Arsenal.

• Villarreal's Spanish internationals Joan Capdevila, Santi Cazorla and Marcos Senna featured alongside Cesc Fàbregas in Spain's UEFA EURO 2008™-winning team. Forward Guillermo Franco, meanwhile, is a colleague of Arsenal's Carlos Vela in the Mexico squad.

• Villarreal's quarter-final record in the competition is: P1 W1 L0.

• Arsenal's quarter-final record in the competition is: P5 W1 L4.

• Both teams bettered Italian opposition in the 2005/06 quarter-finals, Villarreal ousting FC Internazionale Milano while Arsenal beat Juventus.

• Arsenal's only previous UEFA Champions League quarter-final against Spanish opposition pitted them against Valencia in 2000/01 and ended in an away-goals defeat after a 2-2 aggregate draw.

• AC Milan's semi-final defeat of Manchester United in May 2007 was the last time an English team lost to a foreign opponent in a UEFA Champions League knockout tie.

• The second leg will take place in London on Wednesday 15 April.

• The winning team will meet the winners of the tie between Manchester United and FC Porto in the semi-finals.