Arsenal paid the price for not winning their Champions League quarter-final first leg against Bayern Munich and Mikel Arteta admitted he had no words to “lift” his players in the dressing room after Joshua Kimmich’s 63rd-minute header was the difference in Germany on Wednesday night.
Tied 2-2 from the first leg at the Emirates last week, the Gunners were well below par at the Allianz Arena. Bukayo Saka offered little threat while Gabriel Martinelli wasted a good opportunity to score in the first half.
And Arteta admits the north Londoners should’ve won on home soil last week, when Serge Gnabry and Harry Kane cancelled out Saka’s opener before Leandro Trossard’s late equaliser. Arsenal couldn’t find a winner despite putting the Bundesliga giants under pressure late on.
The Spaniard, reflecting on his team’s defeat in Munich, admitted he was lost for words when addressing his players. He said: “It’s a gutted dressing room. Very disappointed. I cannot find the right words to lift them. I wish I could.
“We have to go through it. We tried against a team that has a lot of experience. Through the tie, I think the margins have been very small. There were moments we were better. We gave them two goals in a tie, that’s a big advantage to give away.
“It was a margin of error. Zero. We made a mistake defending the box – a big one. Then we conceded the goal. It’s difficult. We tried in many different ways but it’s difficult.
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“It’s a moment to stay next to the players and give them support and stick with them. They are the ones who took us on this journey.”
A frustrated Arteta insists Arsenal should’ve won the home leg, saying they had an opportunity to do so. He added: “We missed a mistake from them or a magic moment that unlocks the tie. The first leg we didn’t manage to win it at the end. I think we could’ve done, we were better than them.
“Today we had a lot of moments of dominance but that spark around the box is what you need in these ties. The club has been without playing Champions League for seven years. We wanted to be in the semi-finals or the final this year.
“We all wanted that so badly. But you can see in many other clubs it can take six or seven years to get to that stage. We were very close, that’s the reality.”
Days after a 2-0 defeat to Aston Villa at the Emirates dealt a body blow to their hopes of winning the Premier League, Arsenal were hoping to lift themselves with European joy. Instead, they have suffered back-to-back defeats for the first time since the start of January.
But Arteta added: “What we have to play is beautiful. Six games to go. We are two points behind (Manchester) City and a very difficult schedule for everybody. We have to go through the pain tonight, tomorrow get up and come with the same attitude we came here and hopefully beat Wolves.”
Bayern striker Kane reflected: “Unbelievable win. It’s been a tough season for us, we’ve had to fight and really grind at times. We knew it was going to be a tough game. It was what we expected. A tough game, a tight game.
“A great goal from Josh to make the difference for us. To reach the semi-finals is a great achievement for us. The first half was a little bit cagey, both teams didn’t really want to concede early. We needed to up the tempo, up the pressing and be better with the ball. That’s what we did.
“We created a lot of chances and could’ve finished it off to make it easier for ourselves. verall, these games are tough and you just have to find a way to get through them. The expectation here is obviously to try and win the Champions League.
“We won the league for 11 seasons in a row. Maybe there was just a little bit of tempo we were missing in the Bundesliga compared to the Champions League. That can’t happen next season.
“For us now, we have to enjoy this, enjoy the Champions League – it’s going to be a tough game whoever we play in the semi-finals.”
