Arsène Wenger has confirmed that David Ospina will play ahead of Petr Cech in Arsenal’s Champions League last-16 first leg away to Bayern Munich on Wednesday.

The Colombian goalkeeper has been Wenger’s European goalkeeper in the competition group stage this season, but the decision is all the more conspicuous given the stake of the game, and the fact Cech has been in poorer form of late.

The Arsenal manager meanwhile praised Ospina for his displays, too, arguing that they would not have got so far without his contributions.

“I have nothing to add there,” Wenger said when directly asked about reports he would persist with Ospina in the Champions League. “It will be Ospina because of the quality of his performances and if you are today in the last 16, we finished top of the group.

“If you analyse well his performances in every single game, we are where we are basically down to his great performances.”



Wenger was much more reticent on the question of whether the off-form Mesut Ozil would be dropped, despite having admitted on Saturday that his playmaker is low on confidence.

“Look it is not the best moment to give you the first XI tonight,” Wenger deflected. “I will pick the team tomorrow morning and I have no doubt that we play in Germany and Ozil is highly focused to have a good performance tomorrow.