Mikel Arteta says Olivier Giroud’s early goal gave Arsenal the hope that they could achieve an amazing comeback against Bayern Munich on Wednesday night.
The Frenchman opened the scoring after just three minutes at the Allianz, tapping home Theo Walcott’s dangerous low cross.
"I think the character we’ve shown through the night is terrific."
Mikel Arteta
Giroud’s early strike was the perfect start for Arsene Wenger’s team who, despite Laurent Koscielny’s late header, exited the tournament on away goals after a gallant performance.
“We talked about it [scoring early],” Arteta told Arsenal Player. “If we scored in the first 15 minutes, we would start believing and the game could go our way.
“That’s what we tried to do. It was a very tough game to play in your mind and was physically very demanding as well.
"It’s mixed feelings. It was very hard to come here with the result we had in London. We tried until the end and after the second one it was game on.
“I think the character we’ve shown through the night is terrific. I think the manager deserves credit because in every meeting he’s been very positive and he kept believing, as he did last year when we played Milan at home.
“I’m very proud of the effort of the lads. We gave absolutely everything but we lacked a goal.”
Copyright 2024 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
