It took just 16 seconds for Neymar, Luis Suarez and Messi to ruthlessly break on the hosts, with the Argentine providing a composed finish to net his first ever goal against Petr Cech.
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Arsenal suffered a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Barcelona in the first leg of the Champions League knockout stage at the Emirates and their manager Arsene Wenger claims the opposition players were influencing the match official in their latest loss. “I feel that we were extremely guilty and have no excuses for that goal”.
The two-point deficit between themselves and leaders Leicester City at the top of the Premier League table appears a more bridgeable gap than the two goals they must pull back in the Nou Camp.
“We know that we have taken advantage but you never know what could happen in Champions League games”. “That was a disappointing moment for everyone and we couldn’t get over it”. “We will go to Manchester United and we are in a good position… we don’t want to give that up”, Mertesacker told the club’s website. Arsenal marked very hard because they are very strong players. We’ve overcome all the challenges that they’ve put in front of us.
Wenger tried to snatch Suarez back in 2013 from Liverpool, but the Uruguayan soccer player opted to sign up with Barcelona instead.
“We have been disciplined defensively, but we knew if we have to keep a 0-0, we keep a 0-0”, Wenger said.
“It helps also that we beat them a year ago there in the Cup”, he said.
“We just need to focus on getting our goals”.
“We had an unbelievable chance in the first half”.
“I liked everything that we did tonight and we were the deserved winners”.
And Cech gave his assessment of Tuesday’s encounter, adding: “I think we really played well in the first half, and these matches are decided by efficiency”.
But in the end the Gunners were unable to cope with the might of the Catalan giants, and all that will be left to complete in three weeks is the formalities, as Arsenal will surely be stretched on their wide pitch in Barcelona.
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Barcelona defender Gerard Pique will miss the second leg after a late booking which followed a touchline chat with boss Luis Enrique, prompting suggestions it was a deliberate move to get a ban out of the way before the last eight with the tie effectively over.
