Mikel Arteta reveals what PSG bench said about Arsenal after Champions League semi-final loss | OneFootball

Gunners boss feels his side have been the best team in Europe’s top competition this season despite heartbreaking last-four exit

Mikel Arteta claimed that Paris Saint-Germain staff admitted his Arsenal side were “much better than them” during their heartbreaking Champions League semi-final loss.

They kept PSG pinned inside their own box throughout the first half an hour before Fabian Ruiz broke the deadlock from a set-piece, Achraf Hakimi then following up with a goal of his own in the second half.

Bukayo Saka gave Arsenal a late lifeline after David Raya saved Vitinha’s penalty, but then missed a glorious chance to set up a nervy finish in Paris just moments later.

Speaking to TNT Sports after full-time, an upset Arteta said his side were in tears at the result, but suggested PSG’s staff felt they had gotten away with one after Gianluigi Donnarumma made a series of outstanding fingertip saves to preserve their lead.

After congratulating his opponents on their victory, he said: “The assessment, I will make it when I am a little bit cooler, but the feedback that I got straightaway from their bench is that we were much better than them.

“When you look at the two games, their best player on the pitch has been their goalkeeper. He has made the difference for them in the tie and I think we were very close, much closer than our results showed. But unfortunately we are out.

“I am very proud of the players, what we done today, the way we started, how we handled the pressure, the amount of pressure. After 20 minutes it should have been 3-0. But they did something extra.”

Despite their exit, Arteta said he felt that Arsenal had been the best team in the Champions League this season, having thrashed holders Real Madrid 5-1 on aggregate in the quarter-finals.

“There has not been a better team in the competition so far that I have seen, but we are out tonight,” he said.

“We will say much more, but this competition is about the boxes and in the boxes are the strikers and the goalkeepers and [Donnarumma] was the best player in both games.

“For long periods of both games, we were much better than them, but we are not [progressing], and that has to hurt.

“If we want to win this competition and go [to the final], we have to realise that there are certain things that are not on us.”

PSG will move on to face Inter Milan in the final later this month, while Arsenal’s attention will turn to qualifying for next year’s competition.