Mikel Arteta: we were much better than PSG
First of all, congratulations to PSG on making the final. I will make a judgement when I am a little bit cooler but the feedback I got from the bench straight away is that we were much better than them. Over the two games the best player has been their goalkeeper.
I think we were very close – much closer than the results show. I’m very proud of the players, what we did today and how they handled the pressure. After 20 minutes it should have been 3-0. But there is something extra you need in this competition for it to go your way, and it didn’t.
Yes, we were very close. Yes, for long periods of both legs we were much better than them. But we are not there [in the final], and that has to hurt. If we want to win this competition, we need to realise that and there are certain things that are on us. You shouldn’t be just … understanding that we are out. That’s not the way I look at it.
I don’t think there has been a better team in the competition [than Arsenal]. But we are out. This competition is about the boxes, and in the boxes there are normally the strikers and a goalkeeper. He was their best player in both games.
I’m so proud of the boys. They deserve a lot of credit for everything. With the amount of injuries we have – we arrived here in the worst state you can get as a team. [The performance] gives me a lot of positivity for the future. But tonight am very upset.
David Hytner's match report
When it really was all over, this raucous venue pounded to a delirious beat. Paris Saint-Germain are going to their second Champions League final, deserved winners across the two legs. They will fancy their chances of a first title when they meet Inter Milan in Munich.
