That’s exactly what we did.
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2 BAYERN (MULLER 43′, ROBBEN 55′)Barcelona talisman’s second half brace leaves Arsenal spellbound and facing exit Lionel Messi left Arsenal spellbound as the Barcelona striker’s clinical double sealed a 2-0 last 16, first leg victory that put the Champions League holders firmly on course for the quarter-finals.
The opening strike came after the hosts over-committed in search of a goal of their own, with the potentially crucial second coming from a penalty after substitute Mathieu Flamini felled Messi just moments after being introduced. “And we want to show that we can beat them, and you never know”.
“I liked everything that we did tonight and we were the deserved winners”.
It was hard to ignore the feeling that teams can only hold out for so long against Barcelona and it should also be said that the visitors had at least four excellent chances that they did not take.
“They are better than us, everybody knows that, but we could have won the game if we had kept our discipline”. “We were impatient in the build-up, we lost balls that we usually don’t and that’s not because Barcelona forced us to do it, but just because we were not precise enough in our passing….” Naive. And that’s what’s frustrating. “We will not give up”.
“Barcelona master all aspects of the game and they have the players to punish you”.
“We pushed too far into their half and we got caught”.
“We felt we could win it and lost our cautiousness to defend”. Arsenal now has the uphill task of taking on Barcelona at Nou Camp with a 2 goal deficit on March 16.
Since his last Premier League win 12 years ago, Wenger has only managed to add three FA Cup titles to his CV. Not one goes down without shouting. That influences the referee every single time.
Gerard Pique will miss the second leg through suspension after picking up a late caution in Tuesday night’s clash.
However Luis Enrique denied any connivance. “Gerard Pique, if your saw the fault, he had to do that fault, it wasn’t deliberate at all”. The coach was much more comfortable discussing his majestic side’s 33rd consecutive unbeaten match. Ter Stergen had to make some crucial saves to keep the Score 0-0 at half time.
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Wenger likened his side’s defeat by Barcelona to their 3-1 loss to Monaco at the same stage last season when – similarly to Barca’s opener – they conceded from a counter attack.
