CHAMPIONS HURDLE
Captain Odegaard set to take on big league
MARTIN ODEGAARD has always been a Champions League nearly man but has a burning desire to throw off that label.
And with Arsenal one north London derby win away from returning to the biggest club competition in the world, he is on the verge of doing just that.
Real Madrid won the Champions League three times during Odegaard’s time there. But he played in it only twice, in the group stage in 2020.
Odegaard said: “I’ve played there a few games but I don’t feel like I’ve really played there. I really want to get into there and fight.
“That’s where the best teams want to be of course so that would be big for me and the club.”
Signed as the child prodigy the whole world wanted at just 16, Odegaard was loaned out four times by Real before joining Arsenal last year.
And while Real were ruling the roost in Europe, he managed a combined total of only 135 minutes of Champions League football – against Inter Milan and Shakhtar Donetsk.
But he is finally living up to his potential, so much so that Gunners boss Mikel Arteta recently gave him the captain’s armband.
Odegaard, 23, said: “He just told me before the first game against Southampton that I was going to wear it and that was all. We have a young team but with the young players we have we also have a lot of experience.
“We’ve been through a lot and we just enjoy playing football together and you can see that on the pitch – we all enjoy it.”
Sunday’s 2-1 defeat of Leeds has put Arsenal within touching distance of the Champions League, and a win at Tottenham on Thursday will be enough to clinch a top-four finish.
But they were made to work for it after Luke Ayling’s red card as 10-man Leeds rallied and could have snatched a point in a tense finish.
Odegaard said: “It was a good win, an important win. We know the situation we’re in so obviously we’re very happy with the three points.
“Some parts of the game we have to do better and kill the game – but it’s a win and that’s all that matters.
“We know how Leeds play and we know that they’ll never give up, so we always knew it was going to be a fight until the end.
“We have to win in different ways. Last time was not our best game, but we won. In this one we played really good in some parts and other parts we had to fight.
“But we got the three points and that’s the most important thing, so we’re happy.”