A painful defeat

The Gunners were not necessarily the worse team. They created several outstanding opportunities, which they were nevertheless unable to finish. Most other chances were seized by Barcelona and in a vast majority of cases also interrupted by Petr who performed yet another set of magnificent saves. He managed to ward off Neymar as well as Suarez, who additionally struck the post a while later.

“We played really well, though we could really have used a goal,” Petr regretted the team’s lack of productivity. “We managed to get into chances, unfortunately we weren’t able to score from them. That was the main different between both teams,” he admitted. “If you’re playing one of the biggest trophy contenders you do need to get some goals in,” Petr added.

Barcelona punished the Gunners by rapid breakaways. Petr was particularly regretful about the second goal scored from a penalty awarded after Flamini’s foul on Messi.

“The second goal mitigated our chances quite a bit. Nothing’s lost yet, though. If we put up the same kind of fight and work on our productivity, we’ll still have a shot at dramatising the quarterfinal qualifications. We’re still standing. It’s not like we got thrashed by five goals or something,” said Petr.

He wasn’t too worried about the fact that Messi had finally overcome him. According to statisticians, it took Messi precisely ten hours and eleven minutes to do so, i.e. specifically seven mutual matches. “I’m regretting the defeat, not so much the fact that I let one of the best footballers in history score for the first time,” added Petr.