Thursday, March 13, 2014

Robben pleased as Bayern keep their cool

Published: Wednesday 12 March 2014, 8.45CET

"It was the difficult game we were expecting, but we did really well," concluded Arjen Robben after FC Bayern München contained Arsenal FC to confirm a quarter-final spot.

Arjen Robben felt possession was the key to FC Bayern München's safe passage to the last eight of the UEFA Champions League following their 1-1 round of 16 second-leg draw with Arsenal FC. The winger, who told UEFA.com he was looking forward to finding out who awaits in the quarter-finals, explained the importance of keeping the ball from a potentially "outstanding" Gunners side that were given few chances to overturn the 2-0 first-leg deficit.

Arjen Robben, Bayern forward
It was the difficult game we were expecting, but we did really well. I felt we controlled the match, especially in the first half. If you give Arsenal the chance to play football, they can be outstanding, so it was important that we kept hold of the ball.
Compliments to the team. We lost control a little bit after they scored and had to recompose ourselves, but in the end we got a hold on proceedings again and saw the game off.
There are going to be four superb games in the quarter-finals. There are only top teams left in the competition and really it doesn't matter who we're up against. It's going to be very interesting for the fans.
Franck Ribéry, Bayern midfielder
I think Arsenal were a bit passive but they played well. Arsenal are a good side. We knew it wasn't going to be easy but we had a lot of possession and could easily have scored in the first half. That would have made things easier for us but you never know what's going to happen in football. They could have scored another in the second half too. We're just happy to be through to the next round.
Thomas Müller, Bayern forward
I think we made our intentions fairly clear from the start. I expected a more attacking Arsenal side if I'm honest, but they preferred to sit and wait for the chance to counter. It's a difficult game to analyse. I thought we deserved more but Arsenal had a couple of chances in the second half too. At the end of the day, we're through and that's all that counts.
We didn't really think about last season's match but of course it was a bit of a shock when they scored. We went 1-0 up and literally a couple of minutes later they were level. We had to recover from that blow, but we created enough chances to have won the game.

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