Wenger urges complete focus
vienna — Arsenal survived a scare as they progressed to the last four of the Europa League on Thursday after coming back to draw 2-2 with CSKA Moscow in Russia in their quarterfinal second leg.
“Maybe we were a bit surprised by the intensity of the game and we were not in the races in the first half. We were a bit on the ropes, but we had a good response,” Arsene Wenger told BT Sport after Arsenal secured a first European semifinal appearance since 2009.
“It should be every year. It’s never enough. You could see this week in Europe that you had a lot of turnarounds and you need to be completely focused.”
“Everybody speaks about Atletico Madrid. They look a very strong team on paper.”
He added: “We’ve played against a good team tonight. I knew that after the first game and they’ve shown that again. They were mobile and technically good and they gave us many problems.”
Meanwhile, CSKA head coach Viktor Gancharenko added: “We looked very good for 75 minutes and deservedly led. We were close to a comeback but we were not close enough.”
Salzburg captain Alexander Walke described their triumph over Lazio as a ‘small miracle’ after they scored three times in five minutes to beat the Italians 6-5 on aggregate and reach the Europa League semi-finals on Thursday.
All hope looked lost when Ciro Immobile’s clinical finish put Lazio 1-0 ahead on the night and 5-2 in front on aggregate 10 minutes into the second half and the visitors still looked comfortable with 19 minutes remaining and the score at 1-1. But Amadou Haidara, Hee Chan-hwang and Stefan Lainer all scored in a remarkable period of play to secure a 4-1 win and kickstart an Alpine party as Salzburg became the first Austrian club to reach the last four in European competition since 1996.
“It’s a small miracle to come back from behind, which is unbelievable what the team did today, we had a dream day,” keeper Walke said. “It was about mentality, will and courage.”