Arsenal's spirit 'the best' Odegaard has ever seen

Arsenal return to Champions League action to face a tough test with a place in the quarter-finals at stake. The Gunners host Porto in the second leg of their last-16 tie at the Emirates Stadium with the aim of turning the tie around after losing 1-0 in the first leg. 

Arsenal midfielder and captain Martin Odegaard gave some words to the club's official media ahead of the game against the Portuguese side. The former Real Madrid player praised the spirit of his team, commented on the mistakes in the first leg against Porto and also the crucial win over Brentford at the weekend.

"It was great to keep our momentum going with our win over Brentford at the weekend, and of course getting a late goal always gives you a little extra edge as well. We worked so hard throughout the game to score the winner, and I think we absolutely deserved it when it came," he said on the Gunner's late win over the Bees. 

"The spirit here around the whole club is just unbelievable. It’s the best I’ve ever seen in my life as part of a team. We have something special for sure, and that’s showing on the pitch too, how much we enjoy playing together. You see more and more how we understand each other on the pitch, how we move in relation to each other, and that’s so important," he added.

"We are on a great run in the league – eight wins in a row – which is why it is difficult to explain why our performance away to Porto in the first leg was so different to what we have been doing in the league lately. The main difference was our intention when we had the ball. We didn’t threaten enough, we didn’t play forward enough.

"We were trying to play around them rather than through them. That’s one of the things we’ve done so well lately in the Premier League, playing the ball between the lines, and getting our players in dangerous positions. We’ve been really good in our movement, working for each other to open the spaces, but we weren’t able to do that in Porto," the Norwegian concluded.

 

March 12, 2024