Mikel Arteta hailed Arsenal’s achievement of reaching consecutive Champions League quarter-finals for the first time in 15 years and issued a clear message: “Now we want to take the next step.”
With a commanding 7-1 advantage from the first leg, Arsenal comfortably advanced to set up a blockbuster quarter-final showdown against defending champions Real Madrid. Reflecting on the challenge ahead, Arteta said: “You have to be at your very best for every minute of both games and avoid giving anything away — because they will punish you.”
Although Arsenal are facing an almost insurmountable 15-point gap in the Premier League title race, they now stand just five games away from potential Champions League glory. Arteta emphasized: “We need to appreciate what we’ve achieved — it’s incredibly hard to do. But now, we want to move forward. It’s difficult, but we are capable.”
He added: “This is important because we want to win, and to win, you must go through each stage. The club needs this — we are a club that wants to be the best and compete with the elite. To achieve that, we must keep showing up at this level. It’s tough, but we’ve done it two years running, and we have the quality to go even further.”
Raheem Sterling, making a rare start, impressed by assisting Oleksandr Zinchenko’s brilliant goal and Declan Rice’s first-half header. However, Arsenal were pegged back twice, and Sterling picked up a yellow card in stoppage time for a reckless challenge on Johan Bakayoko — a booking that rules him out of the home leg against Real Madrid.
Arteta commented: “I’m really pleased for him and others who haven’t had many minutes lately. His last act — chasing back and getting booked — shows the kind of fight we want to see in our players.”
Meanwhile, Real Madrid’s progress to the last eight was marked by VAR controversy when Julian Alvarez’s penalty was disallowed for touching the ball twice as he slipped. Arsenal, by contrast, completed their tie without drama, cruising to a 9-3 aggregate win.
Arteta concluded: “Obviously, after the first-leg result, it wasn’t going to be easy to stay fully focused, but we had to keep playing the way we want to end this round. Unfortunately, we didn’t win the game, but we made changes in the second half because fatigue was setting in. Overall, I’m really pleased — two straight seasons in the quarter-finals, something we hadn’t done in a long time.”