Mikel Arteta on Wednesday admitted that Arsenal paid the price for making one big mistake as Bayern Munich’s 1-0 victory sent his side crashing out of the UEFA Champions League.
Joshua Kimmich’s second-half header punished slack marking by Arsenal and ended their hopes of reaching the semi-finals for the first time since 2008-2009.
The Gunners were beaten 3-2 on aggregate in the quarter-final after a 2-2 draw in the first leg in north London last week.
Photo: AFP
It was a painful experience for Arsenal manager Arteta, who bemoaned the defensive slip that proved decisive in the second leg.
“At the moment it is a gutted dressing room. I cannot find the right words to lift them. I wish I had them,” Arteta said. “We tried against a team with a lot of experience. Through the tie the margins have been very small. In moments we have been better, but we gave them two goals. That’s a big advantage to give away.”
“Today, you could see the margin of error was zero. We made a mistake defending the box, a big one, and we conceded a goal,” he said. “Then it was difficult. We tried in many different ways, but it’s difficult.”
Arsenal’s defeat capped a brutal four days for Arteta, whose side lost pole position in the English Premier League after a 2-0 home defeat against Aston Villa on Sunday, but the Spaniard said that his players deserved credit for their Champions League adventure, claiming it would take time to develop the qualities required to conquer Europe.
“This is a moment to stay next to the players, to give them support. They are the ones who have taken us on this journey,” he said. “The club has been without Champions League for seven years. You want to play in the first year and be in the semi-finals or the final. We all wanted that so badly, but you can see with many other clubs that sometimes it takes six or seven years to get to that stage.”
Meanwhile, Bayern striker Harry Kane toasted his side’s willingness to “fight and grind” after their win.
England captain Kane told TNT: “It’s an unbelievable win — it’s been a tight season for us.”
“We had to fight and grind, and today was that. We knew we could make the difference with our own fans,” he said. “It was what we expected, a tough game, a tight game, and we got a great goal from Josh to make the difference.”
Bayern’s form in Europe is in stark contrast to that in the Bundesliga, where they are 16 points behind Xabi Alonso’s Bayer 04 Leverkusen, who won the title on Sunday, breaking the Bavarians’ 11-year streak in the process.
“Our expectation is to try and win the Champions League,” Kane said. “There was maybe some tempo missing in the Bundesliga. That can’t happen next season.”
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