Paris Saint-Germain suffered a 2-0 defeat to Arsenal on Tuesday night at Emirates Stadium. In his postgame press conference, Mikel Arteta shared the mindset his team brought into the match.
The Parisian side faced challenges after conceding two goals in the first half, with Gianluigi Donnarumma’s errors at the center of the controversy.
Donnarumma made two critical mistakes that directly led to goals for the home team. The first came when he rushed off his line to catch a cross that didn’t seem overly threatening.
Unfortunately, this risky decision backfired, allowing Kai Havertz to find space and score with a header. The second goal occurred when he misjudged a free-kick from Bukayo Saka.
While it can be argued that Arsenal created enough chaos around Donnarumma to block his view, the 24-year-old’s attempt to swat the ball away was unsuccessful, and it ended up in the back of the net.
Even though the mishaps aided Arsenal in this result, Arteta credited the mind that the team came into this match as why they were able to secure three points.
“I think it raises the confidence, I think, and the belief that we can compete with any team at that level in European competitions, with the European games that are very different to the Premier League,” Arteta told reporters postgame. “I think we showed a lot of maturity in the way that we played, but as well, I think we put our stamp in the way that we want to behave in Europe against top teams, and I really like that…
“I sensed it differently yesterday as well, and the way we were preparing the game and how they wanted the level of focus. But I think they wanted to prove a point tonight as well, that against the top teams at home, we can be ourselves and we can be very dominant as well. It’s another step, we have to continue to do that.”
PSG will look to rebound from this loss when they take on OGC Nice on Sunday, just ahead of the upcoming FIFA international break. Their next Champions League match will be on October 22, where they’ll face PSV Eindhoven at the Parc des Princes.