Barcelona must overcome Arsenal obstacle for perfect ten

FC Barcelona are looking for a tenth straight UEFA Champions League home win when they host round of 16 rivals Arsenal FC.

• Arsenal will hope to avoid suffering a hat-trick of defeats against Barcelona who beat them previously in two-legged ties in the UEFA Champions League in 2010 and 2011.

• The Gunners, however, have a mountain to climb after Lionel Messi's late double in the first leg gave Barcelona a 2-0 victory in north London – the fourth year in a row Arsenal have lost at home in the round of 16 first leg.

Previous meetings
• When the teams met in the 2010/11 round of 16, Arsenal came from behind to win the first leg 2-1, Robin van Persie and Andrey Arshavin overturning David Villa's first-half goal.

• Barcelona recovered with a 3-1 second-leg success in which Messi scored twice. Sergio Busquets had briefly given Arsenal hope with a 53rd-minute own goal that made it 1-1 three minutes before Van Persie's dismissal.

• The lineups for that second leg on 8 March 2011 were:
Barcelona: Valdés, Dani Alves, Busquets, Abidal, Adriano (Maxwell 90), Xavi, Mascherano (Keita 88), Iniesta, Pedro, Messi, Villa (Afellay 82).
Arsenal: Szczęsny (Almunia 19), Sagna, Djourou, Koscielny, Clichy, Wilshere, Diaby, Rosický (Arshavin 73), Fàbregas (Bendtner 78), Nasri, Van Persie.

• The previous season Messi had hit all four Barcelona goals in a 4-1 second-leg quarter-final triumph over Arsenal. Arsène Wenger's men had given themselves hope in the first leg by coming from two goals down to draw 2-2 through Theo Walcott and Cesc Fàbregas (penalty).

• Barcelona beat Arsenal 2-1 in the 2006 final at Stade de France with Samuel Eto'o and Juliano Belletti scoring late on to overturn Sol Campbell's strike for an Arsenal side who lost Jens Lehmann to a first-half red card.

• Luis Enrique scored in both matches when the clubs met in the 1999/2000 first group stage. The Barcelona coach found the net in a 1-1 draw at the Camp Nou and again in a 4-2 win at Wembley.

Match background

Barcelona
• Winners of Group E, Barcelona were one of only two teams to go through the group stage unbeaten and are now looking to reach the quarter-finals for the ninth consecutive season.

• The defending champions are on a run of nine straight home wins in the UEFA Champions League, including a 6-1 rout of AS Roma on matchday five.

• Their last home reverse in the competition was the 3-0 loss to FC Bayern München in May 2013 – their only defeat in their last 36 UEFA Champions League home matches, of which 29 have been victories.

• Barcelona overcame Manchester City FC in the round of 16 in each of the previous two campaigns – each time after winning the first leg in England.

• Barcelona's overall home record against English clubs is W17 D11 L2.

• In two-legged ties against English opposition in UEFA competition, their record is W13 L10.

• As well as overcoming Arsenal in the 2006 UEFA Champions League final, Barcelona also beat Manchester United FC in the 2009 (2-0) and 2011 (3-1) finals. They lost to United in the 1991 European Cup Winners' Cup final (1-2).

• Barcelona have progressed 35 out of the 37 times they won the away first leg in UEFA competition, most recently against Paris Saint-Germain in last season's quarter-finals. Those two failures came against 1. FC Köln in the 1980/81 UEFA Cup first round (1-0 away, 0-4 home), and FC Metz in the 1984/85 European Cup Winners' Cup first round (4-2 away, 1-4 home).

• Barcelona's shoot-out record in UEFA competition is W5 L1:
5-4 v KKS Lech Poznań, 1988/89 European Cup Winners' Cup second round
0-2 v FC Steaua Bucureşti, 1985/86 European Cup final
5-4 v IFK Göteborg, 1985/86 European Cup semi-final
4-1 v RSC Anderlecht, 1978/79 European Cup Winners' Cup second round
3-1 v Ipswich Town FC, 1977/78 UEFA Cup third round
5-4 v AZ Alkmaar, 1977/78 UEFA Cup second round

Arsenal
• The Gunners are bidding to reach the quarter-finals for the first time since 2010.

• They reached the knockout stage for the 16th season running thanks to a 3-0 win at Olympiacos FC on 9 December. They had lost three of their first four group games but finished as group runners-up thanks to a superior head-to-head record against Olympiacos.

• Arsenal lost the first leg at home in each of their three previous last-16 ties – against Bayern (2013, 2014) and AS Monaco FC (2015).

• Arsenal have never overturned a home first-leg defeat in European competition. Aside from those losses to Bayern in both 2012/13 (1-3 home, 2-0 away) and 2013/14 (0-2 home, 1-1 away) and Monaco last season (1-3 home, 2-0 away), they have lost only one other such match, against VfL Borussia Mönchengladbach in the 1996/97 UEFA Cup first round; then they went down by the same 3-2 scoreline away from home.

• It is ten years since Arsenal last won in Spain with a 1-0 success at Real Madrid CF in the 2005/06 round of 16. Thierry Henry scored the goal.

• Arsenal's overall away record against Liga opposition is W2 D3 L8.

• Arsenal have won five of their eight previous two-legged ties against Spanish clubs in UEFA competition. Their last success was a 4-1 aggregate quarter-final victory over Villarreal CF in 2008/09.

• Aside from the 2006 loss to Barcelona, Arsenal have also lost European finals against Real Zaragoza (1995 European Cup Winners' Cup) and Valencia CF (1980 European Cup Winners' Cup).

• Arsenal's shoot-out record is W2 L2:
7-6 v AS Roma, 2008/09 UEFA Champions League round of 16
1-4 v Galatasaray AŞ, 1999/2000 UEFA Cup final
3-2 v UC Sampdoria, 1994/95 European Cup Winners' Cup semi-final
4-5 v Valencia CF, 1979/80 European Cup Winners' Cup final 

Coach and player links
• As coach of Monaco, Wenger suffered home (0-1) and away (0-2) defeats by Barcelona in the 1993/94 group stage.

• Alexis Sánchez made 141 appearances for Barcelona (2011–14), scoring 47 goals. His honours with the club included the 2012 Copa del Rey and 2013 Spanish title.

• With Chelsea, Petr Čech faced Barcelona in two UEFA Champions League semi-finals, losing in 2008/09 – when beaten by a last-minute Andrés Iniesta goal – but winning in 2011/12. He also faced them twice in the round of 16, winning in 2004/05 but losing in 2005/06.

• The first leg was the first time Messi had scored past Čech in the seventh meeting between the pair.

• Mesut Özil faced Barcelona 16 times as a Real Madrid player (W4 D6 L6), including a 1-0 victory in the 2011 Copa del Rey final. He scored against them in the first leg (2-2) of the 2011 Spanish Super Cup but was sent off in the second leg (2-3).

• Nacho Monreal was sent off playing for Málaga CF in a Copa del Rey tie at Barcelona in January 2013. He won only one of ten matches against the Azulgrana with CA Osasuna and Málaga, suffering seven defeats.

• Santi Cazorla scored after two minutes of Villarreal's 3-1 Liga victory over Barcelona in October 2007. His overall record against the Blaugrana with Villarreal and Málaga was W2 D2 L9.

• Cazorla faced Claudio Bravo when his Spain side – also including Jordi Alba, Busquets and Iniesta – had their 2014 FIFA World Cup elimination sealed by a 2-0 reverse to Chile.

• Héctor Bellerín started out in Barcelona's youth academy before joining Arsenal in 2011. Mikel Arteta is another graduate of La Masia but left in 2001 for a loan spell at Paris Saint-Germain before signing for Rangers FC.

• Luis Suárez scored twice in seven meetings (W2 D2 L3) with Arsenal as a Liverpool FC player – in a 2-0 away win in August 2011 and a 2-2 away draw in January 2013.

• Thomas Vermaelen played for Arsenal between 2009 and 2014, making 110 Premier League appearances.

• Players who have played together:
Santi Cazorla & Jordi Alba, Marc Bartra, Sergio Busquets, Gerard Piqué, Andrés Iniesta (Spain)
Mesut Özil & Marc-André ter Stegen (Germany)
Laurent Koscielny, Olivier Giroud & Jérémy Mathieu (France)
Alexis Sánchez & Claudio Bravo (Chile)

Match facts

Barcelona
• Piqué serves a one-match suspension. Arda Turan returns from a ban.

• Barcelona are a Spanish record 37 matches unbeaten (31 wins) in all competitions since a 2-1 loss to Sevilla FC on 3 October.

• Messi, Suárez and Neymar have scored 103 goals between them in all competitions this season following a 6-0 mauling of Getafe CF on 12 March – in which Messi also missed a penalty. The 100 mark was reached on 6 March, when Messi struck twice and Suárez once in a 4-0 success at SD Eibar.

• Arda registered his first goal for the club in the 5-1 victory over Rayo Vallecano on 3 March; he scored his second against Getafe on Saturday.

• Rafinha (knee), injured on matchday one, was ruled out for six months after undergoing surgery on 22 September.

Arsenal
• Joel Campbell, Giroud, Monreal and Özil are a booking away from a ban.

• The 4-0 victory at Hull City AFC on 8 March in an FA Cup fifth round replay was Arsenal's first win in six matches. They lost 2-1 at home to Watford FC in the quarter-finals on 13 March, ending their two-year hold on the trophy.

• The Gunners have lost four of their last seven matches in all competitions.

• Per Mertesacker (cut), Gabriel (hamstring) and Aaron Ramsey (thigh) all went off injured against Hull. Ramsey came on as a substitute himself, replacing Gabriel just before the hour, but lasted only 16 minutes. Mertesacker and Gabriel recovered to play 90 minutes against Watford, but Ramsey missed out altogether.