EXCLUSIVE: Mikel Arteta challenges Arsenal to end Champions League last-16 hoodoo against Porto 🔴
9 Video Views·Feb 21, 2024
Arsenal are back in UEFA Champions League last-16 action for the first time since 2017 when they face Porto at the Estadio do Dragao in the first leg on Wednesday, live on TNT Sports. The Gunners, who arrive in Portugal in a rich vein of form, have a patchy record at this stage of the competition. It's something Gunners manager Mikel Arteta is all too aware of and is hoping to change.
Mikel, good to see you. What are your first impressions of the city of Porto and this stadium where the match will take place tomorrow, because you've just arrived a few minutes ago?
Very excited. We're looking forward to the occasion. It's been a while that the club has been in the Champions League, seven years, and a long time that we haven't gone to the next stage.
We're going to have a really difficult opponent ahead of us, but we are very excited.
As you say, it's been a long time since Arsenal have been in the knockout stages of the Champions League, first time since 2017. Is it special to be here?
It is special, and we have to fight really hard to get to this point, and now we want to take the opportunity. The team is in a good moment, they've had incredible experiences for us, and I'm looking forward to it.
This stage of the competition, the round of 16, for some reason has been a stumbling block for Arsenal in the past. You've played in some of those teams that got knocked out at this round of the competition. Why do you think that was?
That's why every detail is important. The games are really tight, details and individual performances are hugely important, and tomorrow you're going to have to be at your best to win the game.
Can you mentally prepare your players for an occasion as big as this?
You come into this game off a brilliant run of form, five wins since the start of the year. Do you feel like you have the momentum right now?
We have, certainly, and the team is in a very good place, individually and collectively, and we have to maintain that, and we have to play with that confidence, with that trust, and come away to this round with a real belief that we can do it.
Those wins, as well as the amount of goals you've been scoring, surely must breed so much confidence in the players. Have you felt that? Have you seen it?
The last two away matches, 11 goals scored, this is a tough place to come, though. How are you preparing the team for a match like this, against what are tricky opponents?
With that in mind, how important is it that you take full control of this tie starting tomorrow?
That's what we want, and come here and be dominant, be ourselves, and try to dictate the game, and that's the purpose of this year for sure.