Arsenal centre-back Per Mertesacker has said that he was left feeling ‘hurt’ after losing 3-1 to Monaco in the Champions League on Wednesday evening.
Goals from Geoffrey Kondogbia, Dimitar Berbatov and Ferreira Carrasco gave the Ligue 1 side three precious away goals, despite Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain’s last minute strike.
The performance of Arsene Wenger’s side has been much criticised with various players and the French boss himself saying it was a ‘horrible’ night at the Emirates stadium.
“Overall it’s very disappointing for us,” Mertesacker told Arsenal Player. ” I thought in the second half we exaggerated a bit, looked a bit over motivated at times and they got us on the break.
“That’s what we expected, but when you try to come back as quickly as possible, you can make some mistakes. That’s what hurt at the end.
“We never give up. That’s always the sense of our game, even if the expectations will be low now. It’s easy to write us off now but it’s just half time. A lot of things can happen over there and we will try.”
The second leg is scheduled for March 17 with Arsenal needing to win by three clear goals.