1 day Ago By James Stroud
Arsenal have it all to do after being beaten by Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday evening. The Gunners welcomed their French opponents to the Emirates Stadium high on confidence after thrashing Real Madrid in the previous round. However, it was the away side that stormed out of the blocks as they took the lead after just four minutes courtesy of Ousmane Dembele's strike.
Arsenal did all they could to try and restore parity on the night but, despite their best efforts, they could not find a way past Gianluigi Donnarumma. PSG had a few chances late on to double their advantage and take a big lead back to France but they could not take them, meaning the game ended in a 1-0 victory for Luis Enrique's side. PSG defeated Arsenal 1-0 in the first leg of the Champions League semi-finals on Tuesday evening.
David Raya Gives Eye-Opening Assessment After Arsenal 0-1 PSG Despite being on the losing side, David Raya was buoyant after the match and said that Arsenal played 'really, really well' and 'dominated' PSG after the opening 20 minutes. He stated , per the Mirror: "They started quick with a goal and they dominated the first 15-20 minutes but after that we dominated most of the game, created the chances. "Donnarumma made some good saves.
It's only half-time, we take positives. They are a top team but credit to the players for the effort - we could've won the game. We know they keep possession a lot and are good at that.
They had that chance and put it in the net, this is football and we had chances to score but we didn't manage to. "I've not seen [disallowed] goal back but we needed that lift and we showed from the 25th minute of the first half that we can win against any team. We have showed in the season we can win away games too so we'll go to Paris next week trying to win.
" When asked about what Arsenal will do differently for the second leg in Paris, Raya said, per Football.London: "Just try to approach the game the same way. "I thought we played really, really well - I know they created their chances as well but that's part of football.
Just approach it the same way and I know we can win it against any team. Let's go next week in Paris and then, win the game." Wayne Rooney, who also called out Arsenal fans for the 'subdued atmosphere' , did not agree with Raya's take.
Speaking on Amazon, Rooney said: "I think what's happened there is Mikel Arteta's probably gone in and tried to be as positive as he can be and David Raya has given that message back out because certainly that's not what happened in the game. "I think for Arsenal there's a fear over the last few years, psychologically, there's a fear of not getting over the line. They've ran Manchester City close a couple of times in the league, they've ran Liverpool a little bit close, now they've beaten Madrid and they're close in the Champions League.
.. "I think there's a fear.
There's a hurdle they have to go over. You need to be successful to build, and that's the only way you can build is being successful on the way on the journey to the top, and I don't think they're making those steps." Clarence Seedorf also disagreed with Raya, saying: "It's very difficult to do interviews after the match and do a good analysis of the match, because sometimes the feeling doesn't really match the reality.
"But I do hope he will have a good look at the match tomorrow, because it's important to understand what went wrong. Because the second leg, I think Arsenal have so many things to learn from today that can help them. It's not so difficult.
Because we have seen Paris Saint-Germain [get into] difficulty the moment you have an organised defensive team in front of them." The second leg will take place in Paris on Wednesday May 7. The Gunners will have to be much better if they are to have any chance of beating PSG and progressing to the Champions League final for just the second time in their history.
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