{"id":1927,"date":"2026-04-11T18:14:57","date_gmt":"2026-04-11T18:14:57","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=1927"},"modified":"2026-04-11T18:14:57","modified_gmt":"2026-04-11T18:14:57","slug":"mikel-arteta-explains-why-arsenal-missed-out-on-2024-25-champions-league-final","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/?p=1927","title":{"rendered":"Mikel Arteta explains why Arsenal missed out on 2024\/25 Champions League final"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p><strong>At A Glance:<\/strong><\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Arsenal are yet to win the Champions League title in their storied history.<\/li>\n<li>They came close last term, crashing out at the semi-final stage to PSG.<\/li>\n<li>Mikel Arteta has singled out the one reason they lost to Luis Enrique\u2019s side.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator has-alpha-channel-opacity\"\/>\n<p>Under the guidance of Mikel Arteta, Arsenal have turned into a team that is capable of fighting on all fronts \u2013 but they are still yet to win the Champions League in their history. The Spanish boss has singled out the one reason they failed to reach the final last season.<\/p>\n<p>This season, the Gunners have the chance to go all the way and face one of Paris Saint-Germain, Liverpool, Real Madrid or Bayern Munich in the final.<\/p>\n<p>Currently 1-0 up against Sporting CP in the quarter-finals after a first-leg victory, it\u2019ll take some doing to be crowned the champions of Europe \u2013 and Arsenal know that.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Read More:<\/strong> Arsenal can initiate Julian Alvarez transfer but only on one condition<\/p>\n<p>They were unable to reach such levels last term and crashed out at the semi-finals by the eventual winners PSG. And recently, Arteta was asked about their defeat and singled out Gianluigi Donnarumma as the deciding factor.<\/p>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Arteta claims Donnarumma is the reason Arsenal lost to PSG last season<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Arsenal\u2019s and Arteta\u2019s focus is, of course, winning the rest of their matches this season \u2013 but in the lead-up to facing Andoni Iraola\u2019s Bournemouth this weekend, he was asked about their inability to beat PSG over two legs last season.<\/p>\n<p>Ousmane Dembele scored the only goal in their 1-0 defeat at the Emirates Stadium in late April 2025 before Luis Enrique\u2019s impressive side won 2-1 in the return leg thanks to goals from Fabian Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi. Bukayo Saka scored for the Gunners.<\/p>\n<p>That said, the Arsenal boss believed things would have been different if Donnarumma, who moved to Manchester City in the summer, had not put in two brilliant performances between the sticks.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMaintaining clean sheets and not allowing goals to go in, that wins you championships and big trophies,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p>\u201cYou have the best example last year with PSG. If Donnarumma is not there, we are probably in the final of the Champions League. That\u2019s clear!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Incredibly, the Gunners had already beaten the Ligue 1 behemoths earlier in 2024\/25 \u2013 2-0 in the group stage\u2026 and with relative ease \u2013 but things didn\u2019t go to plan when it mattered the most.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"683\" src=\"https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/04\/ARCH70297298_47386922-1024x683.webp\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-135568\" srcset=\"https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/04\/ARCH70297298_47386922-1024x683.webp 1024w, https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/04\/ARCH70297298_47386922-300x200.webp 300w, https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/04\/ARCH70297298_47386922-768x512.webp 768w, https:\/\/media.dave.sport\/readarsenal\/2026\/04\/ARCH70297298_47386922.webp 1200w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\"\/><\/figure>\n<p>Backing up Arteta\u2019s admission, the statistics show that Donnarumma made five saves in PSG\u2019s 1-0 win over Arsenal. His Gunners counterpart David Raya made three.<\/p>\n<p>In the second leg, the imposing Italian was less busy: he conceded the one goal, of course, but made another three saves to prevent Arsenal from scoring. Raya, again, put in a terrific shot-stopping display by making four saves.<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-video is-provider-youtube wp-block-embed-youtube wp-embed-aspect-16-9 wp-has-aspect-ratio\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\">\n<p>\n          <iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"Why Odegaard is the MAIN MAN! | Mikel Arteta EMBARGO | Arsenal v Bournemouth\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/1v8ghHoRZHk?feature=oembed\" frameborder=\"0\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\" allowfullscreen><\/iframe>\n        <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<h2 class=\"wp-block-heading\"><strong>Could Arsenal finally end their Champions League voodoo this season?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>Many of the Emirates Stadium faithful will be hoping that this season can be different \u2013 and beating Sporting 1-0 in the first leg of their two-legged quarter-final tie means they are now one step closer to making history under the stewardship of Arteta.<\/p>\n<p>On their side, Atletico Madrid beat Barcelona 2-0 in their first leg \u2013 but anything can happen as the two Spanish sides meet again next week.<\/p>\n<p>For now, the Gunners \u2013 who are, no doubt, on the easier side of the draw \u2013 will need to focus on themselves and how far they can go in the competition.<\/p>\n<p>PSG will be keen to retain their status as the champions of Europe and Bayern, spearheaded by Harry Kane Michael Olise, will put a tough fight.<\/p>\n<p>Elsewhere, Real Madrid \u2013 the record-winners of Europe\u2019s most prestigious competition \u2013 will also pose a threat to Arsenal\u2019s dreams of winning the Champions League final, which is set to be played in Budapest, Hungary at the fabled Puskas Arena.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At A Glance: Arsenal are yet to win the Champions League title in their storied<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1487,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1927","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-arsenal"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1927"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1927\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/1487"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1927"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1927"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/disport.com.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1927"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}