Stepanovs starts for depleted Arsenal

Arsenal FC manager Arsène Wenger has chosen to play Igors Stepanovs alongside Sol Campbell in a makeshift defence for tonight's UEFA Champions League second group stage match against Bayer 04 Leverkusen at the BayArena stadium.

Injury crisis
Faced with major selection problems ahead of the Group D encounter, Wenger has opted to play Stepanovs at centre-back with Giovanni van Bronckhorst at left-back and Lauren at right-back. The Frenchman's hand was somewhat forced by injuries to Tony Adams, Martin Keown, Ashley Cole, Matthew Upson and Lee Dixon in addition to Oleg Luzhny's suspension.

'Super-rock'
Stepanovs is inexperienced at this level while Lauren is playing his first game since returning from African Cup of Nations duty with Cameroon, so a great deal of responsibility will rest on the shoulders of Campbell, who Wenger has this week described as his "super rock". The quartet will be playing in front of the fit-again David Seaman, who is preferred to Richard Wright in goal.

Rare appearance
With Fredrik Ljungberg still injured, Sylvain Wiltord fills in on the right-hand side with captain Patrick Vieira, Robert Pires and Ray Parlour making up the rest of the midfield. Up front, Kanu partners Thierry Henry, the joint-second top scorer in this year's competition with six goals. Dennis Bergkamp, who could feature in his first European away fixture since September 1999, is named on the bench.

Marking Henry
Leverkusen coach Klaus Toppmöller has detailed athletic defender Lucio to counter the threat of Henry and the Brazilian partners German international Jens Nowotny in the centre of defence. Zoltàn Sebescen is still absent due to a knee injury so the rearguard is completed by Argentina's Diego Placente, Croatia's Boris Zivkovic and goalkeeper Hans Jörg Butt.

Bastürk plays
German international Carsten Ramelow suffered a bruised thigh in Leverkusen's 2-2 draw at FC St. Pauli on Saturday so Yildiray Bastürk comes into the centre of midfield alongside Michael Ballack. Bernt Schneider and Zé Roberto offer width in the 4-4-2 formation. In attack, Ulf Kirsten is partnered by Oliver Neuville. Both players have two goals to their name in this year's Champions League.