Unai Emery was understandably frustrated after we lost the first leg of our Europa League last-32 first leg to BATE Borisov.
Our head coach faced the media after the game, and you can read a transcript of his comments below:
on what he thought of the game...
Good evening. It's a difficult match. Next week we are going to play another 90 minutes and I am sure it is going to be different. Today the first half was a good performance for us, we had chances to score, sometimes last week our chances were a goal and today is not. We worked. I am happy with the players as we worked and we tried. They struggled also defensively when they were 1-0 up and they are organised and a competitive team. Our big chance, our big opportunity and challenge is next week. It's not the result like we want and like we worked on the pitch because we deserved more. But they worked for that and the next game is going to be different.
on Lacazette's red card...
I didn't see the action but we spoke and frustration needs controlling. It's bad news with the red card. Next week we aren't going to play with him but now we are going to think with the players that are okay for next week.
on losing the match...
It's the first match. We play the next match with our supporters in London.
on why he's so confident it will be turned round...
Because I trust in our players and I trust in our stadium and supporters. There are two matches. Tonight's match is important but we can't [be knocked out in it], we are going to play a second match next week. I trust in our work to prepare for the next match and to have a different result in Emirates Stadium.
on Mesut's absence and whether we needed him...
But every player, first is that every work to be ok to play. Today, the players that are here, we can win with these players and we deserved that. Last week for example, we won and we played with the same players. Today, for me, the performance is no different. We deserved to win but football is like that.
on whether he is shocked by the result as we were big favourites...
No. Because I knew before the match that we are going to play two matches. Here we wanted to do the best result, but I respect them and I know because we watched matches they played. An organised team, defensively a good team and good at transitions. We worked to stop them in these actions but they scored one goal and in the transitions we worked well to stop another situation defensively for us. Then in the attacking moment we had the chances, more than them, but the goalkeeper and the last action for us was not efficient. But we did our all to win the match. It's the first 90 minutes. I know it's more difficult here as we [didn't] take a better result, but the next match at the Emirates we are going to continue our work today and I want to work to take better attacking moments with more efficiency and to win the match.
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