Arsenal will travel to Budapest for the Champions League final against Paris Saint-Germain or Bayern Munich with no trace of an inferiority complex, according to Leandro Trossard, who knows that anything is possible in a one-off game.
The Arsenal winger and his teammates drank in the euphoria after Tuesday night’s 1-0 home win over Atlético Madrid in the semi-final second leg for a 2-1 aggregate triumph, savouring the achievement and the sense of history. Arsenal have only contested one previous final in the competition, losing to Barcelona in 2006.
The club are on the brink of their finest ever season as they close in on a first Premier League title since 2004. They are five points clear of Manchester City at the top of the table, albeit they have played an extra game. Arsenal go to West Ham on Sunday. City play Brentford at home on Saturday.
Arsenal will be not be widely fancied to beat PSG or Bayern, who wowed Europe with the quality of the first-leg of their semi-final, which PSG won 5-4 at the Parc des Princes. The return is in Munich tonight. But Trossard gave short shrift to the notion that Arsenal will be major underdogs in the showpiece on 30 May. “It’s not that we will think like that,” he said. “It’s one game so you have to go with everything you can. Everyone will be full of energy. We will be ready for it. In one game, everything can happen.”
Trossard was asked what being in the final could do for Arsenal. “A lot,” he replied. “It’s been 20 years for everyone involved with Arsenal, so it’s amazing to go there. The focus shifts again to the Premier League but let’s enjoy this. It’s an amazing feeling.”
Trossard’s belief comes from Arsenal being the only team in this season’s Champions League not to have tasted defeat. They have taken the scalps of Bayern, Inter and Atlético in the league phase and conceded only six goals in their 14 games, with two of them coming in the 3-2 win over Kairat in the last and largely meaningless match of the league phase.
It was put to Riccardo Calafiori that Arsenal had proved they could beat anyone in Europe. “Yeah, without losing, too,” the left-back said, pointedly. “We didn’t win [the trophy] yet but it [the semi-final win over Atlético] is a massive step and I hope for the same in the final.”
The Arsenal captain, Martin Ødegaard, said: “We can’t think about the other teams, we have to focus on ourselves. It’s about what we can do. We have everything in our own hands. We have to enjoy the moment but we have to get ready for the weekend and another big game. You get massive confidence from these nights and we have to take that into the last few games of the season.”