Arteta anguishes over Arsenal's last-minute Europa League exit

LONDON • Mikel Arteta could not hide the pain of Arsenal's agonising 2-1 last-32 second-leg defeat by Olympiakos, bowing out of the Europa League on away goals after the tie finished 2-2 on Thursday night.

Not only has their most likely route to Champions League football next season been removed, but the momentum that had been built up by a 10-match unbeaten run has also stalled.

Youssef El-Arabi's goal, a minute from the end of extra time, put the Greek league leaders through at the Emirates - just minutes after Arsenal thought they had won the game.

Arteta celebrated wildly when Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang put them ahead in the tie with an overhead kick, but the subsequent sting in the tail was visibly devastating.

"It hurts, big time," the Arsenal boss said. "We had a lot of hope in this competition. It was a great way for us to be able to go to Europe.

"We did a lot of positive things in the game, but if you concede two set-pieces (Pape Abou Cisse headed the opener) in a tie like this, you put yourself in big trouble."

In truth, Arsenal were sluggish from the opening whistle, though Aubameyang wasted a golden opportunity to send his side through after El-Arabi's strike.

The outcome comes as a shock as not only were the hosts favourites to progress after their 1-0 first-leg win in Piraeus, but the Gunners (ninth) had the highest Uefa coefficient of the clubs remaining in the Europa League.

Having reached the semi-finals and the final in the last two seasons, they were expected to at least reach the later stages of the competition.

Arteta now faces a challenge to lift his players for Monday's FA Cup fifth-round tie with Portsmouth and, perhaps more importantly, the final 11 games of a Premier League campaign - they are seven points behind fourth-placed Chelsea.

"I've seen all the boys and I know how much they wanted this," he said. "I've seen today the way they try to play, and it's a difficult one to digest as a team and as a club.

"This is football and sometimes, it is very cruel... You have to be able to handle that if you want to be in this industry, so now it's up to us and me to move forward."

The scale of that task may be beyond him this term, but Arteta retains hope Arsenal can gather themselves to bridge that domestic gap.

"(It will be) very hard because we're still far from the objectives we all have, but we have to keep fighting," he said. "The most important thing now is the dressing room has to be strong."

At Old Trafford, Odion Ighalo scored his first goal for Manchester United since signing on loan from Shanghai Shenhua last month as the hosts thrashed Club Brugge 5-0.

Bruno Fernandes, Scott McTominay and a double from Fred ensured the Red Devils progressed 6-1 on aggregate to a meeting with Austrian side Lask Linz.

THE GUARDIAN