Paris Saint-Germain sealed a 3-1 aggregate win over Arsenal to book a place in this season’s Champions League final.
The Gunners lost the first leg at home 1-0 and had a tough task in their return leg at Parc des Princes on Wednesday.
Arsenal had slightly better possession [55%] than PSG but were only able to score once in Paris. Bukayo Saka scored in the 76 minutes after PSG took a 2-0 lead via goals from Fabián Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi.
L’Equipe provide match ratings for PSG’s latest 2-1 win over the Premier League club and we focus on the ratings given to Arsenal.
Despite conceding two goals, goalkeeper David Raya got 6/10, which is the highest rating given to an Arsenal player. Saka, Declan Rice and William Saliba all got 5/10.
The French newspaper gave 4/10 to Martin Ødegaard, Gabriel Martinelli, Jurrien Timber and Jakub Kiwior. Mikel Arteta got 4/10 and Arsenal ended up with an overall rating of 4.2/10.
The lowest rating was 3/10, handed to Mikel Merino, Thomas Partey and Myles Lewis-Skelly. L’Equipe have provided an explanation for those marks.
Lewis-Skelly starred against Real Madrid but wasn’t able to shine against PSG.
To describe his performance, L’Equipe state: ‘So brilliant in the quarterfinal against Real, so unremarkable in the semifinal. He lost too many balls, including one very close call (30th minute), and most importantly, he conceded a penalty for a handball (64th minute) that could have ended the Gunners’ last hopes. Replaced by CALAFIORI (68th minute).’
For Partey, the newspaper said: ‘His performance is hampered by his involvement in both Parisian goals, as his central header led to Fabian Ruiz’s goal (27th minute, 1-0), and he was beaten by Ousmane Dembélé for Achraf Hakimi’s goal (72nd minute, 2-0). The Ghanaian, who was highly anticipated, also lost numerous balls (19), distinguishing himself only by his long throw-ins (5th, 8th minute), which temporarily sowed discord in the Parisian defence.’
L’Equipe explain in detail why they gave 3/10 to Merino. They state: ‘No shots on target, 11 lost balls, only 19% of duels won… The Spaniard struggled throughout the match, preferring to drop forward too much, when he would have been better off staying close to the goal to meet Saka’s numerous crosses at the end of the first half. He also completely missed a pass for Gabriel Martinelli at a time when Arsenal were pushing (61st minute).’
The latest defeat also means Arsenal will finish yet another season without silverware, extending their trophy drought to five years.
