Mikel Arteta believes that Arsenal has a “big chance” to reach the final of the Champions League, even though she ruled the fine margins in their semi-final defeat from the first EB to Paris Saint-Germain.
Ousmane Dembele's Pinpoint finish in the fourth minute, which came at the end of a 26-pass movement, turned out to be decisive for the men of Luis Enrique at the Emirates Stadium.
PSG was completely dominant in the first half hour, and although Arsenal improved afterwards, they found Gianluigi Donnarumma in good shape between the sticks.
The Italian has made one-on-one saves to deny Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard, while Mikel Merino had a potential equalizer to not leave offside early in the second half.
PSG has now won five of their last seven road-out-stage matches in the Champions League (two losses), as well as many victories as in their previous 16 of such competitions (two treks, nine defeats).
In the meantime, Arsenal was unable to score in a home Champions League match for the first time since a 2-0 last-16 defeat against Barcelona in 2016, but Arteta was not overly discouraged.
When asked about his first thoughts about the balance of the draw by Amazon Prime video, Arteta said: “It's the peace and we have a big chance to be in the final.
“We are of course disappointed about the result, because we put so much into the game. In the first 15 minutes we have difficulty getting the momentum and the dominance we wanted.
“But the goal was a great individual moment and those are the margins at this level. After that the team got better and better and we were frustrated not to get a draw at least.”
Merino's Non-accessible goal came only two minutes in the second half, with the Spaniard not came back on the other side before he nodded Declan's Free-Track House, and Arteta believes that Arsenal needed a breakthrough moment to lift the atmosphere.
“That would have been a great timing. Those are the fine margins at this level, including the rescues of Donnarumma to Martinelli and Trossard, those are the margins,” said Arteta.
In the meantime, goalkeeper David Raya was sure that Arsenal earned more from the meeting and Amazon Prime Video told: “They quickly started a goal and they dominated the first 15 or 20 minutes, but then I thought we dominated most of the game, the chances.
“Donnarumma has made a number of good rescues. It is only the peace, so we take the positive points. They are a top team but the players for the effort, we could have won the game.
“We needed that lift and from the 25th minute we showed that we can win against each team. We have shown that we can win away, so we are going to try to win for Paris.”
Arsenal improved the expected goals of PSG (XG) by 1.65 to 1.14 and had three major chances – as defined by Opta – to the two of the visitors, although they had fewer shots (10 to 11) and a share with a lower possession (47.9%).
The Gunners must now win next Wednesday in the Parc des Princes to get the chance to reach their second Champions League final, but Raya has faith in their chances.
He said: “We will try to approach the game in the same way. We played well, we put them on the back, we hurt them and we have also created many opportunities. We know we can win against every team.”