on Lehmann's sending off...
"To me it looked a red card because it was a
foul outside the box and it looked to be a foul so it is very
difficult to contest. He came out and he was diving and it was in
front of the line of the [penalty] box in the area when a
goalkeeper doesn't know where he is 100 per cent. He was just a
fraction outside but I don't think there is a lot of blame for
him.
"I would not have contested it if he had waited and given the goal, but if you look at the referee he was very early. I saw him whistling straight away when Lehmann made the foul. It came a bit early for us because there were over 70 minutes to go and in a game like that, playing 10 versus 11 against a team which keeps the ball well is difficult."
on Samuel Eto'o's equaliser...
"My biggest regret is that their first goal was
offside. When you are playing 10 versus 11 and you concede an
offside goal it is difficult to accept. It is difficult to accept
losing games on a wrong decision and I feel that something should
be done about it. Apart from that I congratulate Barcelona and
special congratulations to my players for their superb season and
the magnificent match they played tonight."
on dealing with Barca's attacking threat...
"Barcelona were not specially creative but they
could play on our fatigue factor. I never thought we had won, I am
not naive to think that at 1-0 up with 15 minutes left and 10 men.
I saw that we dropped physically and I know one lapse of
concentration would be costly, but I did not imagine we would take
an offside goal. I saw that at 2-1 down we could not win the ball
back. Barcelona did not commit any more. I thought a break or a set
piece could get us back to 2-2 but we did not have the force or
strength to do it."
on the mood in Arsenal's dressing room...
"They are disappointed, they are very very down
but it's part of the game. I know it's a common sentence
but I knew the loser would not deserve to lose tonight because both
teams have played magnificent football in Europe and came into this
Final unbeaten. I knew the loser would feel really sad
tonight."
on his team's heroic performance...
"We played well and I'm convinced we had
two or three good chances to score the second goal. When you
don't you know the last 20 minutes would be difficult. I never
thought we had it won. I'm not naive enough to believe that
with 15 minutes to go, 1-0 up with 10 men that it was
won."
