Arteta: Arsenal was the better team, despite semifinal loss

Once again, Arsenal will end the season without a trophy.

The Premier League team fell to Paris Saint-Germain 3-1 on aggregate, failing in its bid to become only the third team in the tournament's history to reach the Champions League final after losing the first leg of its semifinal.

Arsenal played well over the two games, but lost twice against a rejuvenated and rock-solid PSG side. Arsenal has not won major silverware since manager Mikel Arteta's first season in charge, when it lifted the FA Cup nearly five years ago.

PSG won the return leg 2-1 in Paris on Wednesday. Arteta was adamant that the best team lost.

"I think so. Especially for 160 minutes. They told us," he said, referring to PSG admitting it, too. "It was a case of the most of the performance being there, but just the finishing of the chances wasn't."

Arsenal enjoyed most of the possession in Paris, had 61 attacks compared to PSG's 26, including 19 attempts at goal.

Arteta was quick to point out that PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma had been the best player across both legs with his decisive saves.

"He has won the game for them," Arteta said. "We know that, to win a competition, someone in one of the two boxes has to do something special to win it for you and make it happen."

PSG coach Luis Enrique said Arteta "is a great friend, but I don't agree at all".

"They played in a clever way, but we scored more goals than them, and, in football, it's the most important thing," he said. "They did great, we suffered a lot. It's the match we suffered in the most, but I think we deserve to go to the final."

Arsenal lost the Champions League final to Barcelona in 2006, exited in the semifinals to Manchester United in 2009, and had not been back to the last four since. Defeating defending champion Real Madrid 5-1 on aggregate in the quarterfinals — after victories both home and away — had raised expectations that Arsenal could go all the way.

"I can take positives, and I'm very proud of the team," said Arteta.

Since claiming his first and only trophy with the club in 2020, he has restored Arsenal to one of the biggest forces in English soccer and returned it to the Champions League.

It was back-to-back runner-up in the Premier League over the past two seasons, and is currently on course to finish second for a third consecutive season, this year behind runaway champion Liverpool.

A Champions League quarterfinal last year was followed by a semifinal this time around. But still no trophy.

There have been two Community Shields since the FA Cup triumph, but they are not widely considered major trophies, rather a curtain raiser to the season that is often described as a glorified friendly.

"Sometimes, you have to lose a few in order to win, and you have to overcome some of these setbacks and mentally grow as a person and as a player and as a group," Arsenal midfielder Declan Rice said. "We're going through that at the moment, in terms of losing out in the league and coming close in the Champions League in back-to-back years.

"PSG have gone through tonight, and we're absolutely gutted, but this doesn't define us."

Agencies