Speaks on the pains of losing
By Toby TAIWO
After seeing his side beaten on penalties in the Champions League final by Paris Saint-Germain, Mikel Arteta felt intense pain shortly after the game.
“Pain – that’s it. When you are so close in the competition, and you are a few penalty kicks away from winning the biggest club football competition, that’s the way we should feel.”
He added that his pain is, however, mixed with pride. “For sure. What I said to the players and the staff is that if I tell them one million times ‘thank you’, it’s not going to be enough. It’s not because we won the Premier League, and it’s not because we played the League Cup final, it’s not because we played the Champions League final in the manner that we’ve done. It’s because of the joy and the moments that we have lived together every single day, and that’s above anything else.”
On Gabriel, he said he actually asked to take the last penalty: “He wanted to take number five, honestly. We have prepared and trained for this moment. Normally, the penalty takers would be Bukayo, Martin, and Kai for sure. We knew that if we got extra time on penalties, the penalty takers would be different players, but still of the same quality. When you see Ebz take penalties in training, he doesn’t miss any, but then you have to do in this moment. It’s unfortunate not to have the same precision and efficiency that they had, and that’s the reason that we haven’t won.
“First of all, you have to go through that pain, digest it, and turn it into fuel and improve to reach a different level. It will demand a different level with the quality around Europe. I want to congratulate PSG, Luis [Enrique] in particular, because in my opinion, they’re the best team in the world. What they can do with the ball, with individual actions, I haven’t seen it. It’s not the plan to play in certain areas when you don’t have the ball, but they force you to do that, so even more credit to the players.”
