Wenger down but not out despite another Arsenal flop
( 2003-10-22 13:43) (Agencies)
Arsenal coach Arsene Wenger admitted his side were down, but not out, after
their dismal run in the Champions League stretched to eight matches without a
win after they were beaten 2-1 at Dynamo Kiev on Tuesday.
Despite a spirited fightback which almost saved a point, Arsenal lost for the
second time in their three Group B matches and now prop up the table with just
one point from a possible nine. Their last win in the competition was nearly a
year ago when they beat Roma 3-1 at the start of last season's second group
phase.
But Wenger, whose side are unbeaten in the English premier league and lead
the table from Manchester United and Chelsea, believes his men have what it
takes to remain in contention in the Champions League."The players are down at
the moment and they need to get over it.
But the team spirit is good. We now have two home matches and we will try and
get the maximum number of points."We have the chance to progress further, but
for this we need to beat both Lokomotiv Moscow and Dynamo in London."Even though
we lost tonight, we gave absolutely everything for the whole 90 minutes and
although we were 2-0 down we refused to lose the game and we were very close to
getting at least a point.
"The situation now of course is very difficult, we need even more metal
strength to get through now, but we are still not out of it."Dynamo Kiev coach
Olexiy Mykhaylichenko said his side did well to win after losing Yury Dmitrulin
early in the game with an injury and admitted that Arsenal finished the stronger
side.
"We had several good moments in the first half and really wanted to keep
Arsenal further away from our goal. In the first half we succeeded in doing
this, but not in the second. In the second half they had the advantage."
"We achieved the goal we set ourselves. We fought for every centimetre of the
field. I am very pround of the lads. Today our supporters were really behind
us."Kiev won with goals from Maxim Shatskikh (27th) and Valentin Belkevich
(63rd) while Arsenal scored through Thierry Henry (80th).
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