17th March, 2015
Leonardo Jardim said his Monaco side will have to keep attacking if they are to keep Arsenal at bay in their UEFA Champions League fixture tonight.
Monaco won 3-1 at the Emirates in the round-of-16 first leg, meaning Arsene Wenger’s men require a minimum of three goals to progress at the Stade Louis II – a 2-0 Arsenal win would still see the Ligue 1 outfit progress on away goals.
But Jardim said his side had no intention of sitting back, imploring his side to maintain the aggression that set up the last-16 tie in their favour.
“At this stage of the competition, we are at half-time,” Jardim said.
“We are two goals ahead but our opponent has got many exceptional players, so it will be very difficult for us and I think it will be our toughest game this year.
“At this stage of the competition, every team behaves the same way. I don’t think Arsenal underestimated us [in the first leg], we just played a dream game and this is why the result was what it was.
“When we face a team like Arsenal, with so many players, Olivier Giroud, Santi Cazorla, Mesut Ozil, Danny Welbeck, it’s true that we can’t take this team lightly, so we have to play the same way, the way we played in London, so we won’t get trapped.
“We look at this game like we do with every other Champions League game, which means that we won’t be thinking about the result, we want to play.”
Meanwhile, Gary Neville believes it is time Arsenal imposed their fluent and attractive style of play on the biggest stage of all – their Champions League last-16 tie at Monaco.
West Ham were put to the sword in the Premier League by Arsene Wenger’s side on Saturday, a performance which prompted Neville to brand the North Londoners’ style of play as the best in the division.
Despite this, the Sky Sports pundit believes they are overdue a decent European performance, and he believes their chances of progression will be determined by their ability to replicate their impressive league displays.
“Arsenal’s result against West Ham is what they do. I was at the Emirates two weeks ago when they played Aston Villa and they destroyed them.
“The football they play is absolutely brilliant, it’s the best football in the country in terms of passing against a team at home who are struggling.
“It is some of the best football you will see and you could say their performance against West Ham was a typical performance. That’s a massive compliment to them that they can play football like that regularly.
“But on Tuesday night, they are playing Monaco away in the Champions League and we’ve got to see it then.
“They have the capabilities of turning the tie around but they need to go and play the football we saw on Saturday. You expect Arsenal to do what they did to West Ham to similar teams at home; they have been doing it for many years.
“But Tuesday night is where it will really count against a team that are shrewd, have more quality, and are a Champions League team.”