‘It’s so important to stay disciplined’

Sead Hajrovic has stressed the importance of discipline ahead of Arsenal’s NextGen Series last-16 clash at Inter Milan.

The Italians won the inaugural competition last season and are one of the favourites to lift the trophy this time around.

While Hajrovic is confident the Gunners can spring a surprise, he says they face a test of character at Centro Sportivo Giacinto Faccheti on Wednesday afternoon.

“I definitely think the game will be much more physical than what we have experienced before,” he told Arsenal.com. “As everyone knows, the Italians play really aggressive football, with more long balls and tough tackles, they push you around and try to really get into your heads and make you angry.

“It will be very important to stay disciplined as we need everyone if we are to win. We are in the knockout stages now, so we have to win to get through and we will have a much better chance if everyone stays on the pitch.

“We have to keep a clear mind, a clear head, give our best, work hard and hopefully we will win the game.”

Arsenal beat Athletic Bilbao 4-2 in their final match in Group Six to qualify for the last 16, and Hajrovic says that performance laid down a marker to the rest of Europe.

“We can take a lot of confidence from that game,” he said. “We drew 0-0 against them in Spain and it was a really tight match, so to score four goals against them at Barnet was amazing. Everyone played really well and we got a lot of confidence from that performance.

“I think the rest of Europe are looking at us already, because in the games that we've won we have scored loads of goals. If they have seen the games we have lost, they will know that we deserved to win them. We have a really strong squad and if we can beat Inter then it would be another big win for us.”