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Arsenal supporters have criticized Martin Odegaard for his disappointing performance in their 2-1 loss to Paris Saint-Germain in the UEFA Champions League semifinal second leg on Wednesday (May 7). Having won 1-0 at the Emirates last week, the Ligue 1 giants progressed to the UCL final with a 3-1 win on aggregate.
Arsenal commenced the reverse fixture at the Parc des Princes in high spirits, creating a bunch of chances in the first 10 minutes. However, Gianluigi Donnarumma produced a couple of exceptional saves to keep out the Gunners.
PSG took the lead in the 27th minute through Fabian Ruiz, who released a thunderous volley after the Gunners had failed to clear their lines from a corner. In the 69th minute, PSG's Vitinha failed to convert from the spot after Myles Lewis-Skelly was penalized for handball.
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Achraf Hakimi scored PSG's second goal in the 72nd minute. The Moroccan right-back received a pass from Ousmane Dembele and placed the ball out of David Raya's reach.
Four minutes later (76’), Bukayo Saka pulled one back for the Gunners after an error by Marquinhos. The Englishman had a glorious chance to score his second of the night, but blazed his effort over the bar in the 81st minute.
In the midst of Arsenal's push for a comeback, Odegaard had a quiet outing and failed to create opportunities in attack.
The Norwegian maintained a passing accuracy of 88% (42/48), having featured for the entire 90 minutes. Odegaard provided only one key pass, failed to create any big chances, and was dispossessed 10 times (via Sofascore).
After watching his performance, fans berated Odegaard on X, with one tweeting:
"Odegaard was our opp today! I cannot believe this."
Another added:
"Hate to pick on Odegaard, but he's been (sh*t emoji) the entire season. So frustrating! Can't go into a new season with him as our only creative mid #arsenal.”
"He should have subbed odegaard at 30," a fan suggested.
"Odegaard just had the worst performance in champions league history, and im saying this after watching walter benitez concede 7 in one match and be at fault for 6 of them,” another said.
"Elephant in the room - Odegaard isn't the same since injury and he's costing us.,” a fan complained.
"That Odegaard performance, you woulda thought he was auditioning for Ghostbusters,” another vented.
“I’m very proud of the players” - Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta on the performance against PSG
Despite their defeat and elimination by PSG, Mikel Arteta stated that he is delighted with his squad after the match. He believes the Gunners had opportunities to take the lead, but failed to convert them.
In an interview after the game, Arteta said (via Afcstuff on X):
“I’m very proud of the players, what we’ve done today, the way we started, how we handled the pressure. After 20 minutes it should be 3-0, but there is something extra you need in this competition to go your way & it didn’t.”
Despite recording 19 shots in the second leg, including four big chances, the Gunners found the back of the net only once.
