Per Mertesacker spoke to the media after Arsenal beat Bayern Munich in the Champions League on Tuesday evening.
Here's a transcript of what he said.
on a great night for Arsenal and the most impressive facet…
Our defensive unity from the start and for 90 minutes. I think that stands out today because we knew that they would have good possession, a lot of possession, but we had to keep our focus on our defensive unit and stay as strong as possible and keep [them from scoring] for as long as possible. That was the key tonight. We know that we can always score out of nothing and today Olivier came on and made a goal after a set-piece. In every minute we can be dangerous. We had good chances but our team play was outstanding today and that was the most important thing.
on a defensive mindset being more sensible than an attacking one…
Yeah, it was better. They can create a lot of chances when you press too high. They can come out of dangerous situations so we tried it the other way, stayed more compact in our own half and it worked out completely. We got them on the break we had good counter-attacks, great chances and kept a clean sheet over 90 minutes, which is a good sign against this Munich side.
on stopping Lewandowski…
I think that was a team effort. It was difficult for him. He always tried to come a bit deeper to get the ball and get
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into the holes. It was difficult today for him. I think he had a great chance in the second half but we have a great goalkeeper for him. It was not easy for him but I think he will score some goals in this season and he’s in good form at the moment. I’m sure he will continue his run.
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