Arsenal centre-back William Saliba remains optimistic about his team’s chances of reaching the UEFA Champions League final, despite suffering a narrow 1-0 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain in the first leg of their semifinal clash at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night.
Saliba, who has Cameroonian roots, played the full 90 minutes but could not prevent Ousmane Dembele from scoring the game’s only goal in the fourth minute.
The PSG winger, who is of Mauritanian and Senegalese descent, found space early to punish Arsenal’s sluggish start — a moment Saliba acknowledged as a turning point.
Speaking to Canal+ after the match, Saliba admitted Arsenal struggled in the early stages but believes the tie is still open heading into next week’s return leg in Paris.
“We’re a little disappointed to have lost this first match. We suffered a lot in the first 20 minutes. We were much better after that, we could have scored.
“In the second, we played better, we had chances. It’s not over, there will be a match at the Parc, we hope to win there.
“We have to take the positives, it’s only 1-0, we mustn’t give up, we know that in the Champions League a lot of things can happen.”
Saliba was also candid in his assessment of Dembele’s threat throughout the match.
“He’s a bit everywhere. He drops back, he goes deep, he turns a lot, it’s difficult to mark a player like that.
“We can do better on the first goal. We’ll look, see what we didn’t do well and improve that for the return match.”
Despite the loss, Arsenal can take encouragement from a stronger second-half showing and will travel to France aiming to overturn the deficit and book a place in the final of Europe’s premier club competition for the first time since 2006.
