Aaron Ramsey says being knocked out of the Champions League on away goals by Monaco hurts more than previous European eliminations.
The Wales midfielder and Olivier Giroud scored as Arsenal looked to complete a monumental comeback, but Monaco’s 3-1 first-leg victory proved too great to overturn.
It is the fifth consecutive season that the Gunners have been knocked out in the last 16 but Ramsey believes Tuesday’s elimination is the hardest to swallow.
"We need to be a lot more wise in the first game then go to places like this and win"
Aaron Ramsey
“We’ve always played teams like Bayern Munich and Barcelona,” the midfielder said. “No disrespect to Monaco, but I thought we’d have a really good chance of qualifying. We were given a tough test from the first game.
“It’s not an easy place to come and their record has shown that. We’ve been full of confidence recently and we knew we could come here and give it a real go to maybe qualify, but we came a bit short in the end.
“We’re obviously disappointed that we didn’t qualify. We won 2-0 and gave them a good go. On another night we may have got three or four but it wasn’t to be.
“We have to learn to keep ourselves in the game in the first leg. That’s what we’ve been punished for again this year. We need to be a lot more wise in the first game then go to places like this and win. That’s the main thing that we need to put right as quickly as possible.”
Aaron Ramsey scores against Monaco
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