Martin Ødegaard has admitted that Arsenal "weren't good enough" in both penalty areas during their two Champions League semifinal defeats to Paris Saint-Germain.
The Gunners stumbled to an underwhelming defeat to the French champions during the first leg in north London as Ousmane Dembélé scored the only goal of the fixture, with PSG also claiming victory in Wednesday's second leg at the Parc des Princes.
Efforts from Fabián Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi condemned Arsenal to a 2-1 loss in the French capital, seeing them miss the opportunity to reach the Champions League final for the first time since 2006. Instead, it's PSG who have the chance to win their maiden crown against Inter at the end of the month.
Things could have been different for Arsenal, however, with the Gunners missing some brilliant opportunities across the two encounters, especially early in the second leg. Such squandered chances led Mikel Arteta to claim that his side not only deserved to progress to the showpiece fixture, but were indeed the best team in the competition.
Arsenal skipper Ødegaard was less bullish, admitting that his side lacked polish in the decisive moments in both penalty boxes.
“We gave it a proper go,” said the forlorn Norwegian. “We started the game really well. We were on the front foot, had the momentum, a few big chances but in the end it wasn't enough.
“Between the boxes we did well, inside the two over the two games we weren't good enough. Credit to their goalkeeper who made amazing saves. It wasn't enough and that's painful.
“In the boxes, especially today, what we did with the ball between the boxes we dominated the ball and took the control of the game from the start. We were not strong enough in the boxes and that's where we lost it.”
Arsenal's profligacy was particularly damaging to their bid to reach the final, with the English giants scoring just once across both matches despite mustering an expected goals total of 4.54. Gabriel Martinelli, Leandro Trossard and Declan Rice all spurned excellent openings that could have changed the outcome of the tie.
Once again, such wastefulness in the final third will draw speculation over the potential signing of a new number nine at the Emirates Stadium this summer.
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This article was originally published on www.si.com as Martin Odegaard Names Mistake Arsenal Made in PSG Semifinal Loss.
