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Arsenal star Mikel Merino has claimed that his side can recover from their 1-0 deficit against Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) in the second leg of the Champions League semi-final. The Gunners lost 1-0 against Luis Enrique's side on Tuesday (April 29), with Ousmane Dembele scoring the only goal of the game for the French giants.
Merino, who joined Arsenal last summer from Real Sociedad, has backed the Gunners to secure a place in the Champions League final by overcoming PSG in the second leg. The Spaniard insisted that he believes that Mikel Arteta's side have what it takes to turn things around at Parc des Princes. Merino told HaytersTV, as quoted by TBR Football:
“Why am I optimistic? Okay, based on what I have seen tonight, I think you have seen a team that can compete against a huge side like Paris. I don’t know if you saw Paris in the whole season but they are a really dominant team, they want to keep everybody on their own box and we managed to play a lot, we created big chances.”
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The 28-year-old added:
"This team, you never can give up on us because I think we proved that we always going to fight until the end so I think we have the technical quality and most important we have the motivation to go to the second leg and win this for our fans and for ourselves. I think it changes nothing because the mentality of this team is always going to win, even if you are three up or one down so we are going to Paris with the mentality of sticking to our basics, sticking to our standards and try to win.”
The Arsenal midfielder concluded:
"I think we saw a team that can compete against anybody, we had massive chances to level the game, we couldn’t, but the team is full of confidence and full of energy for the second leg. Yeah, those experiences [winning at the Santiago Bernabeu] are massive for us to prove we can win anywhere, the Bernabeu, against any side in the Premier League as well, it gives us a lot of confidence. Paris is a tough place to go but still have proved always that we can compete against anybody and with all due respect to anybody, I think we are going to win the second leg.”
Arsenal are playing in the Champions League semi-finals for the first time since 2008-09 where they lost against Manchester United. If they can overturn their deficit against PSG in the second leg, the Gunners will be up against either Barcelona or Inter Milan in the final at the Allianz Arena in Munich, Germany.
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