After seeing us depart Germany with a 1-1 first-leg draw against Bayer Leverkusen, Mikel Arteta was left praising his “finishers” once again.
The introduction of Noni Madueke and Kai Havertz from the bench would prove pivotal, as the winger won an 89th-minute penalty which was converted by the former Leverkusen player to grab us a share of the spoils.
It was the seventh time in the Champions League this term that a sub has scored for us – more than any team – and continues to highlight the incredible impact our substitutes, or finishers as Mikel likes to label them, have on our side in the latter stages of games.
“We improved with the finishers,” Mikel added. “A different threat started to create in and around the box, and Noni created the moment to score.
“It was a big moment in the game, in the tie, and for (Kai) to stay calm and composed to make that decision – big credit to him.
“That’s the big quality of this team, the amount of goals and assists across the team. It’s unbelievable, it’s the biggest strength of us, and we have to maintain it.”
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Kai’s goal ensured we remained level in the tie after we were stunned by Leverkusen netting from a corner 45 seconds into the second half, having forced David Raya into a save after just 10.
Mikel was disappointed with that slow start, but praised his players for keeping their heads and ensuring the deficit didn’t increase and give us a second-leg mountain to climb, eventually paving the way for us to restore parity late on.
“It was a game with different moments in the game,” he summed up. “In the first half, we had parts where we were very dominant, but we lacked in the final third, especially a lot of simple things to finish actions much better and those giveaways allowed them to run in transition. They’re a team that is very dangerous on that. We had the massive chance with Martinelli where we hit the bar, and if that had gone in, then obviously it’s a different game.
“Then we had to change a few things, and hoped we would start really strongly in the second half, and we were completely the opposite. We get caught from a routine from kick-off, and we know because we showed three times the kind of things that they do. They could have scored immediately from the cross, and then they scored in the next action with the set-piece, so that’s very, very disappointing from our side.
“After that, we have to emotionally manage the game really well, because we could start to make rash decisions and you can start to throw the tie away.”
After finishing top of the league phase, one added bonus is that we’ll get to play the second leg of any knockout tie at Emirates Stadium, and that perk may quickly prove vital in si days’ time with the scores locked at 1-1.
Mikel wants our crowd to channel some of the incredible Champions League nights in N5 in recent years – such as Porto and Real Madrid – to help drive us into the quarter-finals.
“They’re unbelievable, so we’re going to need our people 100% to give us that home advantage, that energy, that conviction to go and win the tie.”
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