Former Arsenal man Samir Nasri has revealed how terrified they were about facing Manchester United in the Champions League because of Cristiano Ronaldo.
The Portuguese star was at the peak of his United career in the 2008/2009 season and they faced Arsenal in the semi-final of the Champions League.
The Gunners were looking to reach their first final in three years after losing the 2006 tie to Barcelona.
Nasri was a key player for Arsenal at the time and the Frenchman was in fine form, but Ronaldo was unplayable in this period and destroyed all kinds of defences domestically and in Europe.
Nasri recalls the semi-final against United. He said via The Daily Mail:
‘It was the first time I’d seen the Emirates with such a crazy atmosphere, you had flags everywhere and all!
‘When you go into a match with shivers down your spine, you can feel you’re going to have a great game.
‘And we s**t ourselves. We s**t ourselves, and we came up against a great Cristiano Ronaldo.’
Just Arsenal Opinion
Ronaldo was the world’s best player at the time and that gave United a huge advantage because, as Nasri has admitted, our stars were terrified of the Portuguese attacker.
We are a good team now and next season, we will test ourselves in the Champions League again.
