FC Cologne will host Arsenal football club at their home stadium 23 November. Arsenal have two Europa League games remaining and have a five point advantage over Red Star Belgrade in second place. Meanwhile, Cologne who are at the bottom of the group standings need three points to keep their slim hopes of qualifying into the knockout stages.
Arsene Wenger's men will be buoyed by the 2-0 thrashing of Tottenham Hotspurs at Emirates stadium on Saturday, the Gunners will travel to Germany knowing at least a point will secure their passage into the knockout phase as the group winners.
The match in Germany will be between two teams determined to progress further into the knockout stages of the Europe's second best competition after the UEFA Champions League. The Gunners drew their last Europa League match against Red Star Belgrade in London in a match which they performed poorly.
The last time the Gunners travelled to Germany they lost 5-1 to Germany's most successful football team Bayern Munchen. Arsene Wenger will most likely use the match in Germany to rest some of his key players as he has done for the other matches in the competition.
However, Cologne will be eager to claim the huge sculp of Arsenal to return to winning ways having lost their last two Bundesliga matches.
The German side won their last europa league match 5-2 against Bate Borisov, and will be hopping to win to keep the Europa league dream alive.
Talking points
Arsenal is one of the most successful English club, having won the premier league title 13 times, the FA Cup 13 times, the old UEFA cup competition once. The Gunners last won the English League crown in 2003/04 when they played the whole season without losing a single match.
FC Cologne have won the Bundesliga twice in their history and is one of the teams with a large following in Germany, they last won the Bundesliga liga in 1978/79. FC Koln finished 5th fifth in the Bundesliga last season, qualifying directly into the europa league group stage.
Team news
FC Cologne Manager Peter Stoger is facing several injury issues, Jonas Héctor, Dominique Heiznt and Simon Zoller are all injured and will miss the match.
Christian Clemens, Marco Hoger, Marcel Risse, are all doubtful and will probably miss the match if they fail to prove their fitness before the match.
Arsene Wenger will use the match to rest some of the players who played against Spurs over the weekend. Olivier Giroud injury will be assessed to determine whether he will be able to feature for the whole 90 minutes, other than Giroud, Wenger has a fit squad.
