On his view of the game...
"Well, the thoughts are that we played the game
we wanted to play and overall we were playing at a high tempo for
90 minutes, we have given a lot. The positives are that we have put
them under pressure for nearly a big part in the game, and for the
whole 45 minutes in the second half, and that we didn't concede
a goal."
On spurned chances...
"I felt that we didn't take advantage of
the chances we created because we were a bit forceful, a bit
nervous in the final third, with our final ball in our finishing
situations. As well Milan defended with a lot of experience, and
they adapted to the situation, thinking 'tonight we will be
under pressure and we will have to defend well' - and that is
what they did. I feel we had plenty of chances, good headers, Eboue
had chances, but overall we were a bit nervous and when we had
shots we always didn't test the keeper enough, because most of
our shots were in the middle of the goal where the keeper did not
have a real problem, maybe because we wanted to hit it too hard.
But overall we played a fantastic game. It's a shame that a
game like that doesn't get a goal, because on a night where
everything goes for you I think it finishes 3-2."
On the response to Saturday's FA Cup defeat...
"The spirit was fantastic. You could see on
Saturday that the mind was already on this game tonight and we were
not affected, we were just wanted maybe to force the decision
too much, and we were not relaxed enough in the final
third."
On the second leg...
"That promises to be a very interesting game in
the second leg. Unfortunately we cannot transfer our pitch to the
San Siro, so the pitch will certainly not be of the quality we had
tonight. I hope the game will not suffer from it so much because I
feel we can play at a high tempo for 90 minutes and because I feel
that they will have to come out anyway in the second leg.
Also because tonight they didn't create any chances and
defensively we were very good."
On feeling positve about the return tie...
"Yes, because overall with the experience I
have I can say that 0-0 at home is not a bad result. Of course I
didn't dream of a 0-0, frankly, but overall not to concede a
goal is not a bad result at home."
Copyright 2013 The Arsenal Football Club plc. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source 20 Feb 2008