Despite the fact that London Arsenal has not even won the national championship for 20 years, the team is among the top 3 favourites in the current Champions League. Bookmakers consider only Manchester City and Madrid as the best odds, favouring the Canaries over Bayern, PSG, Inter and Barcelona. In the group stage, the London team had no rivals in the quartet with PSV, Lens and Sevilla. The "canoniers" lost points only in the opening round, losing in France (1:2), and the last, when they no longer had any chance to lose the first line of Group B. If rival Porto has not won anything serious for 20 years, this Portuguese team won the Champions League 20 years ago under the leadership of blossoming talent Jose Mourinho. Now the team is not among the favourites of the elite European tournament, but they can "show their teeth" at home to any opponent. At the group stage Porto could not solve the question of the play-offs until the last round, but won against Shakhtar, taking the final second place. Bookmakers have identified the visitors as favourites for the upcoming meeting, offering odds of 1.69 on their victory.

Now Porto is the third team of the national league. If last year the club competed for the championship title with Benfica until the finish, now Porto can not fight with the "eagles" and Sporting. This year, the team suffered one defeat in eight official meetings, managing to win in five.

After the failure of Boxing Day, Arsenal have been so good since mid-January that they are capable of intimidating any Champions League participant. Since their FA Cup exit at the hands of Liverpool, the Gunners have played five games in the Premier League. All duels were won by Arteta's charges, while Burnley, West Ham and Crystal Palace each got five or six goals to their credit. Arsenal's strength during this period also fell to the aforementioned Liverpool, who failed to compete with the "canoniers" in the Premier League. London club before the match looks more favourable than the opponent, but success in the championship does not always guarantee victories in the Champions League. Especially when it comes to an away game.