{"id":28957,"date":"2026-03-17T11:29:37","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:29:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/?post_type=news&#038;p=28957"},"modified":"2026-03-17T11:29:37","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T09:29:37","slug":"arsenal-face-stern-challenge-against-leverkusen","status":"publish","type":"news","link":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/news\/arsenal-face-stern-challenge-against-leverkusen\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal face stern challenge against Leverkusen"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">English premiership log leaders, Arsenal, expect a tough test when they host Germany&#8217;s Bayer\u00a0Leverkusen\u00a0in the second leg of their Union of European Football Associations<br \/>\n(UEFA) Champions League round\u00a0of 16 ties at the Emirates stadium in London.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">Defending champions, Paris Saint\u00a0Germain, will be away to Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, while surprise package\u00a0Bodo\u00a0Glimt\u00a0of Norway will travel to Sporting Lisbon in Portugal.<\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">\nMeanwhile, Real Madrid, will have French forward,\u00a0Kylain\u00a0Mbappe, back for the second leg of their tie against Manchester City\u00a0in\u00a0Manchester.<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal manager,\u00a0Mikel\u00a0Arteta, believes his side can expect another tough test when they host Bayer\u00a0Leverkusen\u00a0in the second leg of their tie.<\/p>\n<p>Last week the Gunners needed a late Kai\u00a0Havertz\u00a0penalty to salvage a 1-all draw in their opening encounter in Germany.<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\" dir=\"ltr\"><\/div>\n<div class=\"x_elementToProof\">&#8211;SABC&#8211;<\/div>\n","protected":false},"featured_media":21982,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false},"news-type":[20],"class_list":["post-28957","news","type-news","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","news-type-sport","entry"],"acf":{"short_description":"","published_date":"","news_description":"Arsenal expect tough test","form_embed":"","author":"","image_caption":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/news"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28957\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":28958,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news\/28957\/revisions\/28958"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21982"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=28957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"news-type","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.channelafrica.co.za\/channelafrica\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-type?post=28957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}