The ITV Football pundit was speaking after Arsenal’s 3-1 defeat in Barcelona ended their hopes of an unlikely Champions League comeback, having lost 2-0 at the Emirates in the first leg.
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“At some stage in our sport you have to admire art and they have two or three players who transform normal life into art. I respect that”.
“We had our chances, but we couldn’t take them”, Wenger said.
“You go through 90 minutes and you come out of a game, [Messi] didn’t miss one first touch”. Considering the strength of Barcelona’s three forwards Lionel Messi, Neymar Jr., and Luis Suarez, it was a tough ask indeed.
Arsenal midfielder Mohamed Elneny evened the score in the second half, but it didn’t take long before the home side regained their lead, this time through an exquisite volley from Suarez.
And he admitted being pleased with the performance of his players, in the face of Barcelona’s much-vaunted attack. It also stretched Barcelona’s unbeaten run to 38 games in all competitions as they aim to become the first team to retain the European Cup in the Champions League era.
“I don’t think Barcelona depend on the three up front”, Messi said yesterday.
Reflecting on his side’s current form, the forward said that they had been performing brilliantly overall. “One was against Monaco but the others are Barcelona and Bayern Munich”.
“In the last six years we have gone out against top sides who have won the Champions League”.
“Especially with how it is with Leicester and Tottenham above them and with Arsenal out of the Champions League and the FA Cup”.
The Arsenal full-back says few teams would have been able to stand up to the Spanish giants in the way the Gunners did on Wednesday night. “We had a couple of opportunities where we should have done better and with the quality they have then they are clinical when they have chances”.
Barça is now on top of the 2015-2016 La Liga table with a win-loss-draw record of 24-2-3 and 75 points, eight points adrift of second-running squad Atletico Madrid with only nine games remaining in the season.
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Wenger insists the title race is “more open than people think”.
