Wenger Backs Players Despite Barca UCL Loss

Arsenal manager, Arsène Wenger, disappointment at his side's 3-1 loss to Barcelona in Wednesday's Champions League last-16 at the Camp Nou.

The Gunners lost the first leg 2-0 at the Emirate stadium two weeks ago and lost on 5-1 aggregate to the Luis Enrique's men.

Wenger said his side were perfect until Luis Suarez scored Barca's second goal, while Lionel Messi scored the last goal of the night for the Catalans.

Messi has now become the only player to have scored nine goals against any team in the champions league.

Here's what Wenger said after the game: "It was a team performance and the quality was good. I’m disappointed with the result but we played against a team with the best strikers I have seen play together. It is exceptional, they can make chances from nothing. We could not take our chances to [find] a second goal that would put us in a strong position tonight but after they scored and it was 2-1, our belief was less than when it was 1-1. We had chances and Barcelona are an exceptional side."

"I could give you all the stats if you are dramatic enough to read the stats. They showed that we suffered but that should not be considered game by game. In football, you look the last game and you look at the positives. We have gone out in the last six years to top sides who won the Champions League after. On one occasion we lost to Monaco but the others are always against Bayern Munich or Barcelona."

"We could have taken the dangerous situations we created. Barcelona, going forward in the final third with the quality of passing and creativity, Messi was absolutely exceptional. He went for 90 minutes and came out of the game without missing a first touch, no matter where the ball came from. Barcelona have two or three players who can transform normal life into art."

"He was injured. He had treatment, then after I don’t know." He said on Arsenal Website