Villarreal win Wenger approval
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
Article summary
Arsène Wenger admitted Villarreal CF had stopped his team playing their usual free-flowing football during Wednesday night's testing Arsenal FC victory.
Article body
Just as there was little to separate the teams as Arsenal FC overcame Villarreal CF 1-0 in their UEFA Champions League semi-final first leg, so there was not much difference between the two coaches afterwards. Both thought their sides could have created more while remaining confident of achieving an overall victory in next week's return match.
Arsène Wenger, Arsenal manager
It was a tense game in which we might have got more than one goal. We had to maintain a balance between keeping a clean sheet and going forward. Villarreal were tough to break down and they also broke up our counterattacks very well. It was difficult to dictate the play in the middle of the park because of the way Villarreal played. Maybe we paid the price for the number of games we have played. But I am optimistic and confident for the second leg. I believe in my team. We want to go there, try to score goals and play our own game.
Manuel Pellegrini, Villarreal coach
We didn't play too well tonight but it is not a bad result. Arsenal played quite well but we should have created better chances when we had the ball and I didn't think we controlled the game enough. But we are still in contention and I believe we can go back home and get the result we need.
