Mikel Arteta reveals Arsenal players 'in tears' after Champions League heartbreak | OneFootball

Gunners boss proud but upset after his side fall short with valiant semi-final comeback attempt against PSG

Mikel Arteta has revealed that his Arsenal players were in tears after crashing out of the Champions League.

The Gunners faced an uphill battle after losing the first leg 1-0 at the Emirates Stadium last week and they were unable to mount a historic comeback.

Fabian Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi struck in either half for PSG, while Bukayo Saka gave Arsenal hope with a goal 14 minutes before the end.

“Today, I see how much they (the Arsenal players) want it because they were in tears,” said Arteta. “The way I describe it is the way I spoke to them and which is the way I feel it.

“Yes, I feel proud. Yes, probably nobody expected it. Yes, probably in the condition that we are, it’s very unlikely to happen but it was there to happen again and we made it very, very close to happening.”

Like in the first leg, Arsenal created plenty of chances on Wednesday night and Arteta believes his side were the better team.

Arteta said the PSG bench agreed with him and he also claimed that goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma - who made a string of fine saves - was the difference between the two teams.

“First of all, congratulations [to PSG] for being in the final,” said Arteta. “Talking about merits, I think we deserve much more.

“When you analyse both games, who has been the best player? The MVP has been the same player, the goalkeeper.

“And the Champions League is decided in the boxes and it’s won the game for them because obviously today after 20 minutes and what happened in London as well, the result should have been very different.

“So I can take a lot of positives and I’m very proud of the team. We have to arrive in the competition at this stage with the full squad, fully available, in the best condition.

“We haven’t got that, so let’s put that aside. Still, the team that I’ve seen today against is probably one of the best, if not the best team in Europe.

Arsenal have now lost their last four semi-finals under Arteta, failing to win any of the eight individual legs in those ties. The Spaniard, however, does not want his players to be scarred by those defeats.

“With fear you cannot play football at the highest level,” said Arteta. “We had the best example in the [PSG] dressing room - Marquinhos, 11 times he’s tried in this club as a winner.

“11 times he’s the captain. So that’s the truth and let’s see if they win it. So 11 times they have to go down and up.

“So look in the mirror at somebody like this with that trajectory and you want to be in the sport and you want to be competing and be very close to all the trophies, you better be able to deal with that. But you have to deal with that.”