Wenger in mood to 'finish the job'

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger believes his side will be in the mood to "finish the job" against Real Madrid tomorrow night.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger believes his side will be in the mood to "finish the job" against Real Madrid tomorrow night.

The Gunners were surprise 1-0 winners in the Bernabeu a fortnight ago, but rather than defend for 90 minutes tomorrow Wenger is backing his players to win the match.

"To be performing well is to defend well against a team like Real Madrid," said Wenger on Sky Sports News.

"But the second part of the job begins when you win the ball back. You want to give them some problems and you want to score goals and not just be negative."

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Wenger will welcome back Robert Pires and goalkeeper Manuel Almunia for the second leg . Midfielder Pires (virus) and Almunia (hand) missed the 4-0 Premiership win at Fulham on Saturday, as did Robin van Persie, who will miss out again as he recovers from a broken toe.

Youngster Theo Walcott is named in the squad but full-back Ashley Cole faces around another three weeks out after spraining his ankle when playing for the reserves.

Sol Campbell (ankle) continues to receive treatment, along with Pascal Cygan (hamstring) and Kerrea Gilbert (back). Gael Clichy (foot) and Lauren (knee) are longer-term absentees.

Despite the injury list Wenger still expects a good performance, enough to advacne to the next stage: "We expect Real Madrid to perform and play well but on all sides we are very, very determined to play at our best and go through.

"We want to finish the job tomorrow night. We maybe did more than half the job in the first game."

Much of the focus will fall on England captain David Beckham, set to line up for the opposition in what may be the last Champions League match staged at Highbury, Arsenal’s long-time home which they will leave in the summer for the Emirates Stadium.

Wenger recognises Beckham will be out to impress in the second leg of the last-16 tie.

"He’ll be wanting to do well just because he’s an ambitious person that wants to win the European Cup, but we want to do it as well."

Provisional Arsenal squad: Lehmann, Flamini, Senderos, Djourou, Toure, Eboue, Fabregas, Gilberto, Diaby, Hleb, Henry, Bergkamp, Ljungberg, Adebayor, Lupoli, Larsson, Reyes, Song, Pires, Walcott, Almunia.