It Was Like Monaco – Arsene Wenger Unhappy As Arsenal Lose To Barcelona

Arsenal face a tall order to reach the Champions League quarter-finals after reigning champions Barcelona defeated them at the Emirates.

The impressive Lionel Messi finished a fine counter-attack started by Neymar and Luis Suarez to give Barca the lead in the 71st minute, before winning and scoring the 84th-minute penalty which leaves Arsenal on the brink of elimination.

Messi, who now has eight goals in five Champions League matches against Arsenal, praised Arsene Wenger’s team after the match but stated he was unsurprised to see their level drop decisively during the closing stages. We put a lot of energy into the game and technically we were very average. “When it looked like we could win this game we gave it away”, Wenger told the British media after the match.

“Realistically it will be very, very hard, if not impossible”, said Wenger.

“Barcelona are through 95 percent but we want to go there and play”. We had enough chances to score at least one.

BT Sport pundit Rio Ferdinand says Per Mertesacker should take most of the blame for Barcelona’s second goal against Arsenal in the Champions League. It is hard against a time like this one and when you do not score, if they have chances, they can score.

‘They worked really hard for each other during the first half but we knew they wouldn’t be able to cope with the pressure after the break. We leave here with a great result, but the idea had always been to go out and win’.

“When Ozil got the ball he wanted to make things happen and Alexis Sanchez the same. We found more spaces, on the counter-attack, and that’s where the first goal came from”.

Neymar fed Luis Suarez, the Uruguayan then playing the ball back to the Brazilian, who surged into the Arsenal area and unselfishly picked out Lionel Messi.

“We had two or three opportunities to stop the first goal but we didn’t because I felt we didn’t have the right response to the situation our players faced”. “They never go down silent”, said Wenger. “Against a side like that you have to take your chances”.