Arsenal are out of the Champions League, beaten 3-1 on the night, but Arsène Wenger was magnanimous in defeat, describing Barcelona’s attacking football as art and their extraordinary forward line of Lionel Messi, Luis Suárez and Neymar as players who “transform normal life”.
If this was a familiar occasion for Wenger, a sixth successive exit at the first knockout stage, there was a familiarity too about Arsenal’s second-leg performance here, and about the manager’s attempts to apply a gloss of late-blooming optimism to a low-key game.
“I think the performance and the quality of our game was good,” he said. “I’m disappointed with the result; we played against a team with the best strikers I’ve seen. The three together are exceptional. They can create chances from nothing. From the bench at 1-1 they were wobbling a little bit and they weren’t secure. We could not take our chance to score the second goal that would have put us in a strong position.”
Wenger’s suggestion that Barça’s 5-1 aggregate winners were wobbling might raise a few eyebrows. But he can at least point to the quality of Arsenal’s opponents down those six years of disappointment. “In England you are committed enough to use all the statistics to make sure that we will suffer, I trust you to do that,” Wenger said. “It’s true we have gone out in the last six years against a top team, who have gone on and won the competition. One was against Monaco but the others are Barcelona and Bayern Munich.”
It could, of course, be suggested the quality of Arsenal’s opponents is commensurate with a failure to top their group, a sequence Manchester City finally broke this season, their reward a knockout tie with Dynamo Kyiv. For Wenger and Arsenal the season is now reduced to a nine-match sprint for another top-four spot, the Champions League simply another opportunity to observe at close hand the very best.
“We created plenty of dangerous situations but we couldn’t take the chance. As well, Barcelona going forward, the accuracy of their passing, especially Messi, is exceptional. Over 90 minutes he didn’t miss one first touch. At some point in sport you have to admire art. They have two or three players who transform normal life into art and I respect that. Of course, for me it’s suffering but it’s exceptional.”
Wenger played down suggestions Mathieu Flamini had stormed off the pitch before sitting and watching the rest of the match on his own in the press room, remarking simply that Flamini had injured a hamstring.
Either way it seems likely this could have been a final European match at the club for Arsenal’s last remaining relic from their run to the final in 2006.
For Luis Enrique it was simply an occasion to admire, not just the skills but the spirit of his own attack. “It’s obvious we have unique players,” Barcelona’s manager said. “We have players that on their day can solve many situations. But I believe the importance of this team is these players also work as a team offensively and defensively.”