“I can’t lie that PSG player almost killed us, He was unmarkable just like a spirit…I’m happy we’ll be with Partey in the second leg, only him could stop that guy”: Arsenal’s defender William Saliba names the only PSG’s player who showed them hell yesterday, Pleads with Thomas Partey to help him mark that guy next week
William Saliba admits Arsenal struggled to cope with Ousmane Dembele during their 1-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League.
Dembele’s early goal at the Emirates Stadium sealed PSG’s victory in the first leg of their Champions League semi-final tie on Tuesday night.
Arsenal had two good chances to equalise through Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard but were denied by an excellent performance from PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma.
PSG also had opportunities to extend their advantage ahead of the second leg in the French capital next Wednesday with Bradley Barcola and Goncalo Ramos both going close.
But Saliba concedes that Dembele, who is a doubt for the second leg due to a hamstring injury, was the PSG player who constantly caused Arsenal problems.
‘We’re a little disappointed to have lost and to have conceded a goal very early on,’ Saliba told Canal Plus.
‘We made up for it a little after that, but we suffered a lot in the first 20 minutes. We played better in the second half.
‘The tie isn’t over, we hope to win at the Parc des Princes. We weren’t surprised by PSG, we knew they were a strong team.
‘We got eaten a little at the start, we played badly. We must not give up, a lot of things can happen.
‘Dembele is everywhere, he’s moving around a lot. It’s difficult to mark him.
‘We can do better with the first goal. We’ll take the positives and go beat them there. We’ll have to show that we have character.’
Meanwhile, Vitinha, who gave his Player of the Match award to Donnarumma after PSG’s win, has warned his teammates that Arsenal are still fully in the tie ahead of next week’s second leg at the Parc des Princes.
‘It’s very difficult to come and win here, we saw that in October. We played a great game, even if we didn’t have the ball like usual,’ the midfielder said.
‘That’s what great teams show. We have to adapt. We couldn’t have scored more, but we’re happy with the result. We were sure we could put in a performance like this.
‘There are people who don’t believe it, but we don’t care. The fans are incredible. We’re all working together.
‘It’s not over, we have to play a great game at the Parc des Princes. No, it’s not personal revenge. It’s the team. We put in a great collective performance, we showed our desire to go to the final.’
