Mikel Arteta had plenty to reflect upon after we went down 1-0 to a late Porto strike in the first leg of our Champions League round of 16 tie.
The manager was asked about the result, the performance, the playing surface and more in his post-match press conference.
Here’s a full transcript:
on if the boss was surprised by our performance tonight:
No, obviously we’re very disappointed by the way we gave the game away at the end, and not managing that situation well enough, and you get punished in the Champions League - if you cannot win it, you don’t lose it. We really dominated the game, but we lacked purpose, especially in the first half to have much more aggression, to break lines, to play forward, to generate much more threat in their backline. In the second half, there were much better things, and we generated a lot of situations without really creating much from it, but we’ll learn from it. Now it’s clear, it’s half-time. If you want to be in the quarter-finals, you have to beat your opponent, that’s clear, and that will be the purpose and the plan with all our supporters together to do it.
on how Porto were able to break up our fluidity:
That’s the context of the game, we knew, we prepared [for it]. That’s something the referee has to manage; we cannot do anything about it. And we’re going to have to handle it and play our game.
on if we didn’t press enough for Porto's goal:
Especially with the way we gave the ball away three times in a row in that area, we cannot do it.
on the way Porto defended:
We are very used to playing against the defensive block, as I said especially in the first half, we had certain things. We will learn from it and be better in the return game.
on if we were victims of a lack of experience in the last few minutes of the game:
Well, it’s only the last ball. If in 94 minutes, we didn’t have the naivety in that one, I think it’s a bit cruel to judge it, but it’s true that it’s had a big impact on the result. A lot of other things that they’ve done for the first time here, it was very good.
on not having a shot on target for the first time in two years:
Credit to them, they defended well, but it’s true that when we got into certain situations, we didn’t finish the action or put the right final ball in the cross or from set-pieces as well. Every time we were touching somebody, it seemed to be a foul before we even kicked the ball. So, we will learn from that and be better.
on the pitch potentially being an issue:
I don’t think so – I think the pitch was good, it was fast, but we are used to that.
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