A Beautiful Opportunity: Arsenal boss Arteta looks towards Champions League clash with Real Madrid 

Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta has been speaking ahead of the Gunners blockbuster Champions League clash with Real Madrid at the Emirates 

The Gunners are hosting the reigning champions in North London in what should be a memorable occasion. 

When Arteta was quizzed on how big the game is for him, he replied: "It is one of the most special things.

"It is a competition that we wait for many years.

 "The fact we have only been twice at this stage in 15 years with the size of Arsenal Football Club says the difficulty of that and we are going to create our own story and go even further.

"Tomorrow is a beautiful opportunity to all of us."

Arteta also added "there are things that we cannot control.

"What they are going to prepare, what they can do - we have to focus and our energy has to be on that understanding our strengths, our weakness and the direction that we want to play in the game."

On the importance of going to Madrid for the second leg with a lead, Arteta insisted it would be "very important," but stressed: "it will be just the first leg so the intention of the team is very clear, we want to achieve tomorrow and we are going to go for it."