Tighten up: Arsene Wenger rages at ‘naive’ Arsenal after devastating show from Lionel Messi
Arsene Wenger accused Arsenal of naivety after they were pushed to the brink of another frustrating Champions League exit by Lionel Messi’s brace in Barcelona’s 2-0 win at the Emirates Stadium.
Wenger was infuriated his players failed to heed his warning to keep it tight at all costs in the last 16, first leg on Tuesday as Messi punished the hosts’ careless defending with a clinical 71st-minute opener.
Messi then took advantage of a needless foul on him by Mathieu Flamini, stroking home the resulting penalty to leave Barca on the verge of reaching the quarter-finals for a ninth consecutive year.
They are better than us, everybody knows that, but we could have won the game if we had kept our discipline
It was a familiar tale of woe for the Gunners manager, who only this week had spoken publicly of his desire not to repeat the first-leg gung-ho tactics that had played a major role in Arsenal’s five successive last-16 failures.
“Of course I’m disappointed. We lost it in a way we knew we could not give them,” Wenger said.
“We were extremely guilty. It’s very difficult to take. If we had to keep a 0-0 I would have been happy with that.
“They are better than us, everybody knows that, but we could have won the game if we had kept our discipline.