Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard has claimed that Eberechi Eze’s penalty technique as Arsenal lost to Paris Saint-Germain was “nonsense”.
The Gunners scored early on through Kai Havertz and held out until 64 minutes when Ousmane Dembele converted a penalty after Cristhian Mosquera – who had been brilliant until that point – brought down Khvicha Kvaratskhelia in the box.
Arsenal eventually lost on penalties 4-3 after extra-time couldn’t find a winner, with Eze and Gabriel Magalhaes missing as the Gunners have to wait at least another year to get their hands on their first Champions League trophy.
Eze stuttered heavily during his penalty run up before pulling his effort wide of the post to give PSG the advantage early in the shoot-out.
David Raya made a save to get Arsenal back on level terms but Gabriel blazed the crucial penalty over the bar to hand PSG a second Champions League win in a row.
Gerrard was unhappy with Eze’s technique, he said on TNT Sports: “Penalties are hard enough.
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“Think about the magnitude of the game, the stadium, the atmosphere, it’s hard enough without any of that nonsense. Put you foot through it, back your technique.”
Ex-Man Utd midfielder Owen Hargreaves added on Eze’s penalty: “I’ve never been a bit fan of that run-up, I think it puts you under pressure.
“I prefer players picking their corner and smashing it in. That one, if you stutter, you can put a bit of doubt in your own mind if the goalkeeper doesn’t move.
“I feel for him and Gabriel because they’re two brilliant players. I just think you need to take doubt out of it by running up and hitting the penalty rather than stuttering.”
Wilshere: It’s not going to take another 20 years to reach a CL final
Former Arsenal midfielder Jack Wilshere reacted to the result against PSG, he said: “It will take a while to get over, but I’m pretty sure it’s not going to take another 20 years to get to another final with Mikel in charge.
“I fancied us [Arsenal] for penalties but it’s a hard one to take.”
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When asked if Gabriel was asked to take a penalty, Arteta replied: “He wanted to take number five honestly. We have prepared and trained for this moment. Normally the penalty takers would be Bukayo, Martin, Kai for sure.
“We knew that if we got extra time on penalties, the penalty takers would be different players, still with the quality when you see Ebz take penalties in training, he doesn’t miss any, but then you have to do in this moment. It’s unfortunate not to have the same precision and efficiency that they had and that’s the reason that we haven’t won.”
On using the pain to motivate his players to move on, Arteta said: “First of all, you have to go through that pain, digest it and turn it into fuel and improve to reach a different level. It will demand a different level with the quality around Europe.
“I want to congratulate PSG, Luis [Enrique] in particular, because in my opinion they’re the best team in the world. What they are able to do with the ball, with individual actions, I haven’t seen it. It’s not the plan to play in certain areas when you don’t have the ball but they force you to do that, so even more credit to the players.”
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