Mikel Arteta challenged his team to transform the frustration of losing against Bournemouth on Saturday into a positive when we go to France next week.
We will face the Saint-Germain de Paris on the second floor of our semi-final of the Champions League on Wednesday evening, and the manager thinks that the additional fire in the belly of the players can help us turn the link.
Speaking after our 2-1 defeat against Bournemouth this weekend, Arteta said: “We really wanted to create an atmosphere, an atmosphere and a very different energy to go to Paris.
“But we have certainly created a lot of frustration, anger, disappointment, and it’s time to show our courage, our resilience, and to go there using everything we feel right now to put an incredible performance and win the game and be in the final.
“This fire in your belly must now be there, and it’s time to intensify in Paris and have an incredible match and win it.”
The manager did not paint any punch during the summary of the defeat against Bournemouth – just our fourth in the Premier League this season.
“We are disappointed with the result, especially after the way we started,” he said.
“We scored the first goal, and after that, we had four or five very great opportunities to kill the match, and we didn’t take them. And in addition to that, we defended the goals really bad for the two sets and against a team from the Premier League, it’s difficult. Especially against a team like Bournemouth, they are really good.
“After that, the game has become very chaotic for us, to really win the right to come back.”
Now attention immediately returns to the Champions League, and we are potentially 90 minutes from the reservation of our place in the final in Munich.
The boss said: “In the Champions League, you have to do something special at some point in the competition to win the right to be in the final, and it is this game. It is before us, with this feeling that we have right now, let’s do it.”
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