Round of 16 Champions League Leg 2: AS Monaco 0-2 Arsenal FC (3-3 on aggregate but Monaco qualifies on away goals).
Reactions from the pitch:
Arsene Wenger – Arsenal coach:
on the defeat…
I felt the performance was enough tonight, but it was a very difficult task. At half-time, the game could have been over with the chances we created, overall we pay that in the first game we did not produce the performance we wanted. Monaco played at home, have zero shots on target and yet go to the quarter-final.
on Arsenal’s Champions League record…
It is difficult to compare the years, because the season before, we played against Barcelona and Munich. We are very disappointed to have gone out tonight, but overall we are on a positive trend. This game was online with what we did recently.
on not letting the season slip…
It is very, very important because we want to win the next game. If you look at the numbers, we had a 98% chance to be out, but we did fight and produce the game we wanted. I felt that some players were a bit jaded offensively because we have given a lot on Saturday and in the second half lacked a bit of freshness to finish the game off.
on whether this is the most disappointing exit…
Yes, I would take it separately from the other years. I am very disappointed to go out tonight of course, but there are lots of positive in the game. The overall situation is disappointing. If you just look at the game tonight, it is positive for us. I am realistic enough to know every season is different. Judge our season at the end of the season. Tonight I don’t believe we had a disappointing performance, it was a positive performance and you can take that into the end of the season.
Aron Ramsey: “We’re obviously disappointed that we didn’t qualify. We won 2-0 and gave them a good go. On another night we may have got three or four but it wasn’t to be.
“We have to learn to keep ourselves in the game in the first leg. That’s what we’ve been punished for again this year. We need to be a lot more wise in the first game then go to places like this and win. That’s the main thing that we need to put right as quickly as possible.”
Leonardo Jardim, AS Monaco FC coach
It was the game that we expected, very intense. Arsenal took advantage of our mistakes to score but we were expecting that. We deserve to go through, we won 3-1 away. Today Arsenal only won 2-0 so we deserve it.
In the quarter-final draw, all the teams will want to play Monaco. For me it will be the first time I have experienced the quarter finals of the Champions League. We have to give credit to the players for what they did. Nobody was expecting us to be here. It’s a great reward. I enjoyed playing in front of a full stadium. I hope that for the next game our fans will be here again.
arsenal.com / uefa.com
