Trophy-hungry Arsenal will end one more season without any silverware after losing 2-1 and 3-1 on aggregate to Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-final of the UEFA Champions League at Parc des Princes on Thursday, failing in their bid to become only the third team in the tournament’s history to reach the Champions League final after losing the first leg of its semifinal at home.
Although Arsenal’s play was good throughout the semifinal in both legs, they lost both matches to a rock-solid PSG.
Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta believed Arsenal were the better side. “I think so (the better team lost). Especially for 160 minutes. They (PSG) told us,” he said, referring to PSG admitting it, too. “It was a case of the most of the performance was there, but just the finishing of the chances wasn’t.”
Arsenal enjoyed most of the possession in the second leg in Paris. The Gunners had 61 attacks compared to PSG’s 26, including 19 attempts at goal.
Arteta also pointed out that PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma had been the best player in both legs with his decisive saves. “He has won the game for them,” Arteta said. “We know that, to win a competition, someone in one of the two boxes has to do something special, to win it for you and make it happen.”
PSG manager Luis Enrique said Arteta is his great friend, but he disagreed with his point of view and believed PSG deserved to proceed to the finals.
“Arteta is a great friend, but I don’t agree at all. They played in a clever way, but we scored more goals than them and in football it’s the most important thing,” said Enrique. “They did great, we suffered a lot. It’s the match we suffered the most. But I think we deserved to go to the final,” he added.
Arsenal have not won major silverware since lifting the FA Cup nearly five years ago in manager Mikel Arteta’s first season in charge. They lost the Champions League final to Barcelona in 2006 and in the semi-finals to Manchester United in 2009, and had not been back to the last four since. ue
