Kasper Hjurmand reflected on his interaction with Nicolas Jover during Arsenal’s match against Bayer Leverkusen. Robert Andrich scored the opening goal just after half-time, outshooting William Saliba at the far post and pushing the ball past David Raya.
The Bundesliga side gave the Gunners their own medicine and found the back of the net from a corner kick. The Arsenal manager, as usual, accompanied Mikel Arteta in the set-piece technical area, but was asked about his approach by the Leverkusen manager when his team took the lead.
Jover responded politely to the inquiry, laughing and ignoring it. Speaking to journalists after the first leg of the Champions League last-16, Yurmand described his friendly exchange with Arteta’s assistant.
Speaking to CBS Sports, the 53-year-old said: “No, he’s not a friend of mine. He used to work for Brentford and when we joined the national team I was in talks with Brentford about taking him to some games, but in the end that didn’t happen.”
“I’ve only met him a few times so he’s not my friend, but he just said, ‘Oh, you’re doing it too.’ I said, ‘Yes, of course.’ What I said in the press conference was not for Arsenal, it was general. We do it, everyone does it.”
“I’m not criticizing what Arsenal are doing at all, but I’m just wondering. Is it actually in the rules to make these aggressive blocks and just body-check people who don’t have the ball in the area? That was just my question.”
“He (Jover) said, ‘Yeah, you’re doing it too.’ Yeah, I never said we weren’t doing it.”
“We set up blocks to create space for other players. Sometimes it happens far away from the ball,” Yurmand told reporters before the match.
“As far as I understand football, when you do a body check the ball has to be in play. Everyone does it. I just wonder, is it within the rules that you can block even if the ball isn’t near you?”
Jover and the Leverkusen manager may have had some fun moments on the touchline, but Arteta was left fuming. Arsenal’s head coach said: “We wanted to start the second half very strongly but we did exactly the opposite.
“We already talked about it before the game, but we started not paying enough attention to the kick-off, so they got a clear header and then scored a goal.”
“Then obviously the game started and the flow completely changed. So we had to stay very calm emotionally after that. We improved in certain areas. I think with the changes, we improved as well.”
“We had more presence on the flanks, more threat, and in the end we found a way to tie the game. We had played three games in a row in the Bundesliga a few days ago, so we knew they had a certain routine and we showed them that image.”
“But the reality is we need to look at it and do it. And we paid the price for not doing that.”
