Unai Emery maintains Arsenal still have only a “50-50” chance of reaching the Europa League semi-final, even after beating Napoli 2-0.
The second leg is at the Stadio San Paolo next Thursday evening, after Aaron Ramsey and a deflected Lucas Torreira strike gave them a comfortable advantage.
Unai Emery maintains Arsenal still have only a “50-50” chance of reaching the Europa League semi-final, even after beating Napoli 2-0.
The second leg is at the Stadio San Paolo next Thursday evening, after Aaron Ramsey and a deflected Lucas Torreira strike gave them a comfortable advantage.
“I’m 60 per cent happy. We know the first leg today was very important to take good results and a good feeling with our supporters,” said the Coach in his Press conference.
“I think we deserved the result. We controlled the match with the ball and positioning. We can take their box with players and scoring two goals.
“We didn’t concede a lot. In the second half was different because they pushed more and had more possession.”
Napoli have not won an away game in Europe this season, between the Champions League and Europa League, but have been far stronger at the Stadio San Paolo.
“We know it’ll be very difficult there, their performances at home are usually strong performances. They’ll use all their attacking possibilities against us.
“Confidence is very important for us. This feeling is very important. We take confidence after the last result away. The first objective today is for us important. We need to take a lot of respect away.
“The idea is not changing, we want to win every match. This result gives us a small difference with them. Our target is going to be away also, thinking to win the match. We’ll prepare like that, but with respect for them.”
Statistically and based on historic results, Napoli have only a 17 per cent chance of progress, but Emery isn’t buying it.
“It’s 50-50. It’s a good result that can give us some advantage, but playing away I know continuing with this. Each match is very difficult. We are winning here because we feel very strong with our supporters, giving each player all they can.
“Away we are first fighting against one team – they felt the same against us. We need to be competitive, strong in our mentality.”