New Delhi [India], February 22 (ANI): Following Arsenal’s 1-0 defeat against FC Porto in the UEFA Champions League’s (UCL) Round of 16 match, the Gunners’ head coach Mikel Arteta said that they are very “disappointed” with the result.
Arsenal have performed stupendously in their previous two Premier League matches, scoring 11 goals. However, in the UCL match week, the Gunners displayed a sloppy performance in Portugal.
Just before the final whistle, Galeno received the ball outside the 35 yards, moved forward and placed a fiery long-range effort that beat the Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya and registered an advantage before the second leg in London.
Adressing the post-match press conference, Arteta said that they had not managed the situation well enough for which they were “punished”.
As per Arteta, Arsenal dominated the game but lacked “purpose” and “aggression’ in the first half. He added that in the second half, the Gunners created plenty of situations.
The head coach also asserted that they will learn from the 1-0 defeat against FC Porto.
“We’re very disappointed by the way we gave the game away at the end, and not managing that situation well enough, and you get punished in the Champions League – if you cannot win it, you don’t lose it. We really dominated the game, but we lacked purpose, especially in the first half to have much more aggression, to break lines, to play forward, and to generate much more threat in their backline. In the second half, there were much better things, and we generated a lot of situations without really creating much from it, but we’ll learn from it. Now it’s clear, it’s half-time. If you want to be in the quarter-finals, you have to beat your opponent, that’s clear, and that will be the purpose and the plan with all our supporters together to do it,” Arteta was quoted by Arsenal’s official website as saying.
On the other hand, star English and Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice said that they need everyone’s support at the Emirates Stadium to win the second leg of the Round of 16 game.
Rice concluded by saying that he is “looking forward” to the second leg match.
“We’ll need absolutely everyone,” he said. “The Emirates is going to be rocking. We feel that when it’s like that at our stadium it’s obviously one of the best places in the world to play football so we’ll be ready for it, I’m already looking forward to it and fans get right behind us. We’ll need everyone,” Rice said.
With a 1-0 defeat in the first leg of the UCL’s Round of 16 game, Arsenal will lock horns against FC Porto in London on March 13. (ANI)
