? 'We are not favourites but believe we have a chance'
? We've beaten best team in history, claims Cesc F�bregas
Ars�ne Wenger believes a vital psychological barrier has been breached with the defeat of Barcelona. Wenger, who will take his Arsenal team to the Catalan capital next month with a 2-1 lead, said: "We are not favourites. We believe we have a chance. Barcelona are still favourites and we know tonight that we can beat them ? which we did not know last year."
Arsenal drew at home and were hammered 4-1 in the second leg of last season's Champions League quarter-final, which finished 6-3 to Bar�a on aggregate.
"We were not only strong on the physical side but on the mental side; we kept resilient," Wenger said of this game. "We took advantage of one special piece of skill from [Robin] van Persie [for the equaliser] and that goal and the second was after some good build-up play.
"Tonight's result gives us a chance to go to Barcelona with belief. It is a special lift for my team. Our players have shown exceptional strength tonight, and togetherness. This will enforce that. I am proud for Arsenal football club. Everyone urged us to play differently to our nature so it is good. I believe this can strengthen the belief in our philosophy. We know it will be a very difficult game [in Spain] but we will prepare well. We will be highly focused and we go to win our game. We will go for it."
Pep Guardiola believed the game had many similarities to last year's first leg at the Emirates, where his Barcelona side dominated the first half but ended up with a draw. "We created more chances than last year," he said. "It's a pity, but we knew they're a very, very good team. On the counterattack they're dangerous. But we have the second leg ? They are a tough, tough team, but we dominated and more or less took control of the game. It was more or less the same as last season."
Wenger did admit that Arsenal were constantly on edge. "We suffered for some periods in the game but we never gave up and stayed mentally strong. You're always on the border of collapsing against them; if you give just a bit mentally you will be punished," he said. "The team wanted to go as long as they could."
Cesc F�bregas believes that a year on from their quarter-final defeat, Arsenal are maturing. "First of all [this time] we don't have five or six injured players," the captain said. "Second, we are all one year older, we have closed the gap on them. We are 23, 24, 25, 26 years old ? mature enough to play big games. We showed it here but if we don't show it in the Camp Nou it's nothing to us. It's just one game ? it's a nice compliment to us, that's all.
"They are the best side in football's history, in my opinion, [but] the tie is 90 minutes and we've only played 45 [minutes]. It gives confidence to the team."
Wenger admitted he took a gamble in the second half when replacing Alex Song, one of his holding midfielders, with Andrey Arshavin, an attacker, to give Arsenal an extra man going forward for the closing moments.
"It was a mixture of yellow card [which Song had received] and that I wanted to go for it," Wenger said. "We finished with Jack Wilshere, Cesc F�bregas, Samir Nasri, Nicklas Bendtner and Robin van Persie. [At 1-0 down] we needed to score two goals ? we took a gamble and it could have backfired and we lost 2-0 or 3-0 to them. It worked."
Wenger hailed an outstanding display from Wilshere, who continued his impressive season by out-performing Andr�s Iniesta and Xavi, who finished second and third in the 2010 Ballon D'Or. "He was outstanding tonight," the manager said. "He was not fazed by the occasion in difficult periods. He took the ball and [often played] out of the pressure.
"I am highly delighted because it was a special night. The game promised a lot and absolutely fulfilled the promises between two exceptional football teams who always try to play."
Van Persie said Barcelona had been beaten because Arsenal had taken the contest to them: "In my opinion, and in our opinion, if you drop back too much they are so good they will in the end beat you by far. We had to beat them in their own style. We got a bit lucky but it was a fantastic win."
Source: http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/2011/feb/17/arsene-wenger-arsenal-barcelona-champions-league
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