Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger has slammed “diver” Arjen Robben following his side’s Champions League exit to current holders Bayern Munich. A spirited performance saw the Gunners secure a respectable 1-1 draw in Bavaria, but it was not enough to book a quarter-final place as the Germans secured a 3-1 aggregate victory. Having trailed 2-0 following their first leg defeat at the Emirates, Arsenal fell further behind when Bastian Schweinsteiger stuck home early in the second-half, though Lukas Podolski blasted in the equaliser against his former club moments later. The drama continued late into the tie as Bayern were awarded a later penalty when Robben, who has a reputation for theatricals, went down very easily under pressure from Laurent Koscielny. Thomas Muller squandered his chance from the spot as Lukasz Fabianski, in for the suspended Wojciech Szczesny, did well to deny the German’s poor kick. But having seen Robben go to ground on numerous occasions during the two-legged tie, Wenger was unimpressed with the former Chelsea winger’s antics. Robben is very good at getting the maximum of nothing and he is a great player and as well a very good diver, but it is part of it, said the Gunners boss. He is a fantastic player, I would not deny that, hes one of the best players in the world. But he gets in front of a player and then he slows down and goes down. He gets the free-kicks. Thats where we spoke about yesterday that the referee, if he gives him a yellow card on the first one when he goes down, he will not do it again. Despite the result the Gunners went out of the competition with a bow following a spirited performance, but, with Bayern looking shaken after Podolski’s leveller, Wenger still rued their missed opportunities against the European champions. The Frenchman added: Our defending, our spirit was good. The frustration we had was the last 20 minutes I felt that Bayern was very vulnerable defensively and that we didnt take advantage of that. We always missed the first pass, but I felt the situations were there where we could have made more of it. At the end of the day we never got them really under pressure. Even at 1-1 you could see they became suddenly nervous, but because we never managed to make it 2 1, of course you could not really see how they would have responded.”
Posted on: Wed, 12 Mar 2014 00:17:43 +0000
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