he Arsenal coach appeared at a press conference and spoke in these terms after the final against PSG.
Possible penalty for Madueke. “It could easily be a penalty… the referee has made a decision and a different one with Mosquera – and yes, it is an important one. I have seen. I have seen all the penalties in the competition to know what was a penalty and what was not and this one was a penalty.
Pain. I feel a lot of pain. We were almost touching the Cup but nothing. There really is a lot of pain. We thought so but it didn’t happen. “It has been an incredible campaign because we are undefeated, we did not lose a single game and this is the reality.”
Pride. It’s clear. I told my players and my coaching staff. I thank them a million times and it’s not enough… There are many moments that we live together on a daily basis.
The penalty missed by Gabriel M. He wanted to shoot the fifth. We had trained this moment. Bukayo Saka, Martin, Havertz usually take the shot… but we know that after extra time… the penalties were going to be taken with other players with different qualities. Unfortunately we did not have the same precision as PSG.
Use pain to get better. We must digest, swallow this pain and use it as fuel to feed our dream. Now we have higher expectations. I want to congratulate Paris, they are the best team in the world with individual actions. In fact, it was not our plan to defend so far back but Paris forces you to do so.
Frustration. It wasn’t. It’s the end of the story. You have to be better. Improve and find another way to achieve the results.
PSG the best team in the world. It is necessary to arrive in a competition with the entire squad available. With more players. We have to improve on that. Now I do have an important bench but not all of them arrived on the best occasions for different reasons.
The pain: “You have to dominate your emotions, you feel pain and you have to feel it, sport is this. This does not take away the pride I feel for my players, what we have experienced this year we are not going to experience again, we will experience it in a different way. We must congratulate PSG, they have resources for absolutely everything.”
The match plan: “Scoring early, yes, but the number of minutes we have been with a low block, no. What Luis has done with the team has tremendous merit, you need that bit of luck and we haven’t had it.”
The penalties: “Those who could shoot, we were missing players like Havertz, Bukayo Saka, Odegaard… Those who shoot are different from those who start the game and we have to be right.”
Will he continue at Arsenal?: “Now I need to rest, it has been a very, very long year, I am very grateful to everyone, to all the staff, to the team, to the public and now we have to rest.”