Arsenal suffered a bruising evening in Paris when their Champions League dream came to an abrupt end to PSG – and one French publication has now beaten several stars in their players' reviews
French Outlet L'Equipe has rubbed salt in the wounds of Arsenal by hammering their players in the aftermath of their defeat against Paris Saint-Germain in the semi-final of the Champions League on Wednesday evening.
The men of Luis Enrique claimed to be a 3-1 victory over aggregated after defending an early storm of the Gunners, who lost 1-0 last week. They will be confronted with Inter Milan for European glory later this month, while Arsenal is now destined to end a different season without a large trophy.
Although Arsenal started as a house on fire in the French capital, PSG did not look back after he took the lead against the run of playing by Fabian Ruiz.
And L'Equipe, the publication that is notorious because of their brutal player classifications, has given the same treatment to an Arsenal side that was tempted by many to go all the way after beating Real Madrid over two legs in the quarterfinals stage.
Thomas Partey, Myles Lewis-Skelly and Mikel Merino all received three with the newspaper with the performance of Lewis-Skelly: “So brilliant in the quarterfinals against Real, so unobtrusive in the semi-final. He lost too many balls, including a very handball, and above all, he gave a penalty.”
The majority of the Gunners received Viers, including Captain Martin Edegaard, whose 'insufficient' version, brutal, actually considered an improvement in his show in the first stage.
David Raya was the highest rated Arsenal player on sixth after his penalty save, but there were more shots in the Chamber for Mikel Arteta, who also had a four and was accused of being responsive instead of proactively in his attempt to turn the draw in favor of Arsenal.
“It feels like he had a plan A, but no plan B, unable to adapt to the opening goal of PSG,” L'Equipe said about the Spaniard. “He waited for Paris to get a penalty (69th minutes) to make his first changes while his team had a hard time, but he was unable to give a second wind in his team.”
Despite the fact that he felt a shortage, Arsenal – midfielder Declan Rice – who was judged as 5 – that the Londoners were a pity to get nothing out of the game. He said to TNT Sports: “I thought we were dominant today, if we score one of those opportunities in the first 15-20 minutes, the game changes.
“Two mistakes from us and two goals for them. We gave it everything, it was not meant. You are inside or you are in this competition. We could have scored more goals about the two legs, but Donnarumma was incredible and it was not meant.
“Sometimes you have to lose a few to win and overcome setbacks to grow as a player and as a group. We are currently going through that in terms of the competition and Champions League – we have been back -to -back seasons here – we grow like a team, but we have to keep pushing and believing.
“We are absolutely stripped, but this does not define us. We will be stronger with our players who have been out for a long time.”