Interview

Auba - What Laca said to me before the penalty

Aubameyang

One of the most heart-warming moments of our season came in the 68th minute of Sunday’s win over Manchester United.

After Alex Lacazette had been brought down in the box, he passed up the opportunity to add to his personal tally, instead giving Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang a shot at redemption from 12 yards following last weekend’s miss against Tottenham Hotspur.

It was a moment reminiscent of last season’s win over Stoke City, when Auba turned down the chance of a hat-trick by gifting a penalty to Laca, who had been struggling for confidence in front of goal.

“This friendship is really really strong,” Aubameyang said. “Straight after he fell down, he looked for me and said, ‘You shoot. You have to be focused and you shoot’.

“It’s a great partnership and, of course, the coach decides who plays and whether we play together or not. And we have to accept that, that’s normal. But I think we are both really focused on playing for the team and giving our best.

“We don’t care about who is shooting the penalty, the most important thing is to score. After Laca got the penalty and looked at me, I felt good and I was ready to score because we are having a good period with the team and everybody said that I would score again.

“I watched the penalty I missed a lot. I knew that I made a mistake when I shot last week. But in life you have to always look forward and I had to be focused. That’s what I was against United.

“It was important to have two great games, first against Tottenham and then tonight against Manchester United. And now we feel that we have everything in our hands. We know that it will be tough but we want to do something. We want to get back into the Champions League. We are really hungry.”