Thierry Henry criticizes Arsenal after Champions League semifinal loss to PSG: ‘A lot needs to be changed’

Arsenal legend Thierry Henry was critical of the performance of the Gunners in the first stage of the semi-final of the UEFA Champions League, with the argument that they made “so many mistakes” when Paris Saint-Germain registered a 1-0 victory on Tuesday.

The French champions scored the only goal of the game in the fourth minute, thanks to Ousmane Dembele, who reflected the impressive early start of the visitors. Arsenal settled later in the first half and was perhaps the most dominant in the last 20 minutes, although Henry was the power of PSG Luis Enrique free to manage that last part of the game.

“Paris Saint-Germain was much superior to me in this game, so a lot has to be changed to check Arsenal to ensure that they can beat Paris Saint-Germain there and it will be a different ball game,” said Henry Henry at the UEFA Champions League today after the game. “As soon as Dembele came out of this game, Paris Saint-Germain dropped a little more. It was easier for Arsenal to put pressure because Dembele did not get on the ball. It was a bit different than what Luis Enrique did. He accepted that he did not have the ball in the last 20 minutes.”

Henry was particularly critical of how the Gunners started the game, when they seemed unable to process the PSG press and admitted the only purpose of the game. He said it was “too early to get so caught” and went into detail about the mistakes that Arsenal made in the structure of Dembele’s goal, starting from the start of the piece, deep in PSG’s half.

“If you are under pressure against a team like Paris Saint-Germain in the beginning, what I understand, you have to be on the point, and you see the first mistake for me is Bukayo Saka and how he started to put the pressure, which does not happen often,” Henry said. “While you are going to see at the start of the game, Paris Saint-Germain, they wanted to be on the front foot and put pressure.

“You can see it [Martin] Odegaard asks that everyone is coming so that they are coming. You will not see it now, but [Jurien] Wood now goes with [Khvicha] Kvaratskhelia. What you do is that you bend your run to ensure that [Nuno] Mendes is at stake there. You cannot put upright because he will have the opportunity to give that ball into that ball. … that’s the first mistake. You cannot allow them to play inside. Bend your run, show him the line. Don’t show him inside. “

The result and performance means that the responsibility is on Arsenal to correct the course for next week’s second stage in Paris, but Henry was also clear about the fact that a shortage of one goal is not a death sentence.

‘Everything can happen. I said it earlier – [PSG] It did not score that second goal, the draw sealed, “he said.” You are still in the draw. “