Throughout our Europa League campaign, Petr Cech has spoken about his dream of retiring with a trophy in his hands.
And now, he’s only one match away from making that a reality when we face his former club, Chelsea, in the final on May 29.
Cech spoke after we beat Valencia to reach Baku - and here’s what he said.
on if he’s been to Baku before…
I’ve never been to Baku before and I’m really happy that I have to go for.
on why dreams come true…
Well, you have to believe in your dream and that’s the only way. To work hard is one thing, but you really have to believe dreams can come true otherwise it might not. I’ve always been doing it in my life and my career believing that it might come true. Throughout my career I actually did some of those dreams and my last dream as a professional footballer is to win the last final. I’m very happy we went through this difficult test today and we really deserve to go through.
on what this means to Arsenal…
I think we are on the verge of making history for Arsenal Football Club. It’s such a fantastic football club and I feel like our supporters and everybody connected to the club deserve the joy from winning a European final so hopefully we can do the last step and win it for them. They’ve been supporting this club with all their energy and they’ve been waiting long, so hopefully we can end this wait.
on whether he will teach others how to prepare for a European final…
Yes, I think this is where real experience can play a part because you can speak to people and guide people through. When you reach a European final there’s a lot of pressure on everybody so you have to make sure as a senior player that everybody goes to the game prepared.
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