Arsenal defeated Sporting in the Champions League quarter-finals, but the Portuguese club’s captain Morten Hulmand felt the goalless second leg was “a bit boring”
Manager Morten Hjurmand speaks out about Sporting CP’s loss to Arsenal in the Champions League quarter-finals
Sporting captain Morten Hjurmand described the Champions League quarter-final second leg against Arsenal as “a bit boring”. The Denmark international also said the scoreless draw was “low intensity” and “no rhythm” and was not what the team wanted.
Arsenal and Sporting had 23 shots in 90 minutes, with only one shot on target each. Their total xG was 0.93, the lowest of any Champions League match this season.
Sporting have scored 114 goals in 48 games this season. Arsenal have scored 117 goals in 54 games.
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Yurmand told CBS Sports after the game. He said: “I think it was an even game today.
“I think the impact of the first game we lost made it even more difficult to go to the Emirates and win, especially when you haven’t lost that much at home. We knew it would be difficult here as well, but you could still say it was a boring game with low intensity, no rhythm, zero goals.”
He added: “We stopped a lot during the game so we couldn’t get into the rhythm we wanted, so it was a bit boring if you were someone watching from the outside at 0-0.”
“And the 1-0 in the first leg is not what Sporting wants. We want to score goals and create chances, and today we couldn’t do that.”
Yurmand spoke again about the suspension of activities. He said: “I felt like I stopped a lot during the game, especially during set pieces, and it took me a lot of time to step away from the game.
“It’s also about the rhythm. Especially in the first half when we got into the rhythm, I think we created a lot of chances to score 1-0. But to be honest, in the end we didn’t create enough chances to win the game.”
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However, he refused to compare Arsenal to other teams remaining in the competition. “I prefer to talk about Sporting and not Arsenal and compare them with other teams,” said Hürmand.
Mikel Arteta spoke about Arsenal’s performance after the match. The Gunners manager said: “We have to be better than our opponents. I think we had a lot of moments in the game, but we just couldn’t score. We didn’t finish the game enough.”
“There are a lot of other things that are very important to get the result we need with a draw. In this moment, too, it’s about how we fight and when we go to win a title, that’s going to be what defines the moment. Tonight we certainly achieved that.”
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