Published: 24 February, 2016
by TOM FOOT at the Emirates Stadium

Champions League, Round of 16, 1st leg
ARSENAL 0, BARCELONA 2

ARSENE Wenger gave a withering assessment of his own side and the visitors after a crushingly familiar 2-0 defeat in the last 16 of the Champions League.

The Arsenal boss criticised “all of” the Barcelona players for play-acting while admitting there was “no excuse” for at least the first of Lionel Messi’s two goals.

He said: “When they go down, they go down and they shout, they nevergo down silent. All of them. Not one goes down without shouting. Honestly, it’s like they are programmed for the reflex.”

He added: “I don’t think we lost because of the referee – we have to look at ourselves. We were impatient in the build-up. We lost balls we don’t usually do. Technically, we were not passing. 

“We had an unbelievable chance in the first half. It’s a problem. In the final third we missed something. We put a lot of energy in and I felt we lost when we looked capable to win the game. We are especially guilty on the first goal and have no excuse.”

The stats did not lie: Barca notched 15 shots to Arsenal’s eight, and had 66 per cent possession.

Arsenal’s play had felt gung-ho  but the powerful, direct counter-attacks orchestrated by Alexis Sanchez had rattled Barcelona.

Neymar seemed to have met his match in the brilliant Hector Bellerin and Messi had been expertly repelled by Per Mertesacker and Laurent Koscielny in the first half.

Petr Cech made a big save early in the second half – Barca’s first shot on target – after Neymar found himself racing in one-on-one.

At the other end, Olivier Giroud was mistiming his passes and, in one particularly poor moment, laid the ball off to an empty void, provoking gestures of disbelief from his teammates. Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil had blown decent chances but despite the wayward shooting, it had felt like Arsenal had been on top before they were stung by a decisive counter-attack from the European champions.

Luis Suarez picked out Neymar in space who squared to Messi and, being the best player in the world, he checked back, sending Cech sprawling before calmly clipping it in.

Suarez hit the post on 77 minutes in a gilt-edged chance for the visitors to wrap it up. But moments later Messi obliged from the spot after he was judged to have been felled by fresh sub Matt Flamini.

The final 10 minutess were depressingly one sided and, barring a miracle, Arsenal will be out in the last 16 for the sixth season in a row.

“You lose 2-0 at home in Europe and it is not a happy dressing room,” said Wenger.

ARSENAL: Cech, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Monreal, Bellerin, Ramsey, Coquelin (Flamini, 84), Oxlade-Chamberlain (Walcott, 50), Ozil, Sanchez, Giroud.
Attendance: 60,090
Subs not used: Gibbs, Ospina,  Campbell, Chambers.