Samir Nasri has claimed Arsenal “s***” themselves when they had to face Manchester United and Cristiano Ronaldo in the semi-finals of the Champions League in 2009.
Arsenal reached the last four of European football’s top competition in Nasri’s debut season at the Emirates.
But they were eventually beaten 4-1 on aggregate by United, who won the second leg in London 3-1 thanks to a brace from Ronaldo.
United progressed to the final in Rome, where they were beaten 2-0 by a brilliant Barcelona side managed by Pep Guardiola.
In an interview on Zack en Roue Libre, Nasri admits Arsenal froze on the big occasion against United.
“It was the first time I’d seen the Emirates with such a crazy atmosphere, you had flags everywhere and all,” he said, as reported by Get French Football News.
“When you go into a match with shivers down your spine, you can feel you’re going to have a great game.
“And we s**t ourselves. We s**t ourselves, and we came up against a great Cristiano Ronaldo.”
Nasri: We were robbed against Barcelona
Nasri also reflected on Arsenal’s controversial defeat to eventual winners Barcelona in Champions League round of 16 in 2011.
After securing a famous 2-1 win at the Emirates in the first leg, Arsenal were then beaten 3-1 in the reverse fixture at the Nou Camp.
The Gunners were leading the tie 3-2 at one point in the second leg in Spain before Robin van Persie was shown a hugely controversial second yellow card for kicking the ball away just seconds after the referee had blown his whistle.
“We played with an injured [Cesc] Fabregas – who wanted to play anyway, because it’s against Barcelona and he was leaving – and Van Persie gets a red card, because he hadn’t heard the referee’s whistle,” added Nasri.
“Try playing with ten men at the Nou Camp, where the pitch feels like twice the size of the one at your stadium, and you already weren’t seeing much of the ball.
“We were robbed in that game.”
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