Arsenal are not out of the Champions League yet! by Sam P
A lot of you will surely say that Barcelona simply destroyed Arsenal at the Emirates on Tuesday, but the fact is that with a bit of luck we could easily have been two goals up before the Catalans scored their first.
Even the great Lionel Messi admitted as much after the game. “It was a great performance from us, we got a good result against a very good team with really good players,” he said. “The first half was very tough, they were strong, but in the second half we knew they were not going to be able to keep up the pressure.
“It’s a great result away from home and a very important result, but the second leg is still to come.”
Arsene Wenger may have said that Barca are 95% through to the next round, but that means we still have a 5% chance no? Arsenal are famous for pulling the rabbit out of the hat when under pressure in Europe, and even Luis Suarez agreed that the tie was far from over. We are very happy as we got really nice score but we know that it is still not done,” the Uruguayan said. “There are another 90 minutes extra to be played.
“We know that we have taken advantage but you never know what could happen in Champions League games.
“Arsenal is fighting to win the Premier League and they have players who can make differences in the second leg.”
It’s never over until the fat lady bites someone, eh? So what do our players think. Hector Bellerin, who famously got poached from La Masia, is adamant that Arsenal can still do it, and thinks that there was not much between the teams at the Emirates. “We’re going to hope [for a result in the Nou Camp],” Hector said. “We’ve shown that we are at the same level if we want to be because we play great football, defend well with a great solidarity and compactness.
“Even if it’s a different kind of game, we’ve shown that we’re up there and we can fight for it.
“We had more or less the same number of opportunities but the difference was just that they were efficient up front and we weren’t. Maybe they had a bit more luck. I think the team defended really well and we played really well but sometimes these things happen.
“We’ve shown that [the gap between the sides] is not that big. The team played some great football and at some point we thought we had the game in our sights.”
Judging by some of the comments on here, you would think that Arsenal were slaughtered. Maybe they didn’t actually watch the game, because the ones out on the field thought it was quite a close game, and maybe it will be our turn for some luck in the return leg?
Sam