Paris Saint-Germain head coach Luis Enrique insisted his team were deserving of their berth in the final of the UEFA Champions League following their triumph against Arsenal.
“Over the two legs we scored more goals than them and in football its the most important thing, but Arsenal played a great game and we suffered a lot,” said the Spaniard.
Goals in each half from Fabian Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi had put the French champions in a great position as Bukayo Saka pulled a goal back for the Gunners, with PSG’s Vitinha missing a penalty.
However, the Parisians needed goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma to make a number of key saves as Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta stated his own team had been the better side over two legs.
“It is the match in which we suffered the most [in the Champions League] but we deserve to get to the final,” Luis Enrique added.
PSG will now square off against Inter Milan in the final in Munich on May 31 after a superb run in the competition which has also seen them knock out two other Premier League outfits in Liverpool and Aston Villa.
It comes after they had been in real danger of elimination due to a poor run of results in the league phase – they lost three of their first five matches, including a 2-0 defeat against Arsenal.
That meant they came 15th out of 36 teams and finished eight points behind the best team, Liverpool.
“I think throughout the competition it is clear that the results are what counts, we know that, but in the league phase there is no doubt we deserved nine points more,” Luis Enrique continued.
”The fact we had such a difficult set of fixtures in the league phase helped the team improve and grow.
“The statistics showed we were one of the best teams in Europe, and when we started to be more clinical, in a short competition, I think we have showed that we deserve to be in the final.”
