‘Same as Monaco, we gave it away’

From Back Page looked like we could win this game we just gave it away. ‘We were impatient in the build-up, we lost balls we usually don’t lose and it wasn’t because Barcelona forced us to do it, but because technically we were not precise enough in our passing. ‘We had been disciplined defensively. We knew that if we had to keep a 0-0, we keep a 0-0. They are better than us. Everybody knows that. ‘We could have won the game tonight if we had kept the discipline until the end. And, once again, like against Monaco (in the Champions League round of 16 last season), exactly the same, we were caught in exactly the same way.’ Wenger insisted he had not given up on the tie ahead of next month’s return leg. The Frenchman said: ‘Barcelona are 95 per cent certain to go through, but we want to go there and play. We are Arsenal Football Club, and we will not go there and just have no chance.’ Barca boss Luis Enrique denied Gerard Pique had picked up a deliberate yellow card in order to miss the second leg and be free for the quarter-finals. The former Manchester United defender was booked for a foul on Danny Welbeck moments after a conversation with his manager, but Enrique said: ‘No, it wasn’t deliberate.’

l ARSENAL face the nightmare scenario of playing two season-defining matches in 48 hours next month. The FA have identified Monday, March 7, as a possible date for the Gunners’ fifth-round FA Cup replay at Hull City — two days after they visit Tottenham in the Premier League. Arsenal want the Hull game to be played later that week, on the Tuesday or Wednesday, March 8 or 9. But Champions League fixtures are scheduled for those nights and that threatens Arsenal’s quest to have the game delayed because UEFA prefer clubs from Europe’s top leagues to avoid playing on the same night as games in their elite competition.