'Annoyed' Arteta says best team in UCL 'are out'

Mikel Arteta said the best team lost after Arsenal crashed out of the Champions League semifinals.

Paris Saint-Germain won 2-1 on Tuesday night on goals from Fabián Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi to complete a 3-1 aggregate victory and set up a final against Inter Milan in Munich on May 31.

The Gunners made a fast start in the French capital as PSG goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma produced two fine saves from Gabriel Martinelli and Martin Odegaard inside the opening 10 minutes.

Donnarumma also made an excellent fingertip save to deny Bukayo Saka before Vitinha missed a 69th-minute penalty for a handball by Myles Lewis-Skelly awarded on VAR review.

Saka eventually found the net in the 76th-minute, but it proved a consolation goal as Arsenal failed to reach their second Champions League Final and now face a fifth consecutive season without a trophy.

After the match, Arteta said: "100 percent I don't think there's been a better team [than Arsenal] in the competition so from what I have seen, but we are out. We deserved much more I think in both games. But this competition is about the boxes and in both boxes there are normally the strikers most of the time and the goalkeepers and he was the best player in both games."

Pushed on whether that meant the best team lost the tie with PSG, Arteta replied: "I think so, yes. Especially across 160 minutes. I'm saying that and they are saying that because they just told me that.

"It gives me so much pride, but at the same time I'm so upset, so annoyed that we didn't manage to do it. Today I see how much the players want it because they were in tears [at the end]."

Arteta's rival manager Luis Enrique was asked about the assessment after the game but respectfully disagreed with his countryman.

"Mikel Arteta is a great friend, but I don't agree at all [that Arsenal deserved to win]," Luis Enrique said. "They play the way they want and love to play, but in the two legs, we scored more goals than them and that is the most important thing.

"Arsenal played a great match and we suffered a lot, but we deserve to get to the final."

Midfielder Declan Rice, who had an early header sail just wide of Donnarumma's post, said an early goal for Arsenal could have swung the tie.

"If you score one of them chances, probably in the first 15 or 20 minutes, the game completely changes on its head," the England midfielder said. "Then, two mistakes from us, two goals for them. And obviously, with the chances we've missed, it just felt like it wasn't meant to be."

Arsenal have now failed to progress from each of their past four major cup semifinals (2020-21 Europa League, 2021-22 Carabao Cup, 2024-25 Carabao Cup, 2024-25 Champions League).

They also fell agonizingly short in two Premier League title battles with Manchester City in the past two seasons, but Rice said those setbacks would make them stronger.

"I think sometimes you have to lose a few in order to win, and you have to overcome setbacks and mentally grow and grow as a person and as a player and as a group," Rice said. "We're growing as a team, as people, that we need to keep pushing and keep believing."