Tonight’s the night we could reach the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League by maintaining an aggregate lead over Real Madrid, and Dvaid Raya has given an insight into how his squad is feeling ahead of a big night at the Bernabeu.
During his pre-match press conference on Tuesday, Arsenal’s shot-stopper touched on the confidence and momentum we have going into the second leg.
“The mood is great,” he said. “The feeling is not nerves, it’s confidence, it’s being able to replicate what I did in the first game, and what I’m coming here for, for the win.
“We have the momentum, I think. The way we play, the way we faced the first leg is incredible for everyone, and we’re here just to play our history, to win the game, to come here and win the game, and that’s the most important thing.
“When I started playing for Arsenal, we were in the Champions League, so I was convinced that we were going to play against the best teams in Europe in this competition, but you want to play against the best teams if you want to win trophies, so we were convinced that we were going to do well last season and hopefully even better this season.”
Asked how to be prepared for such big matches as a goalkeeper, David is just focused on controlling the controllables.
“You try to be focused on what you can control,” he explained. “You can control your actions, you can control what you do, you can’t control the outside and the noise and all that, so you have to be very, very focused on what you can do yourself, that’s the most important thing.
“We cannot think about the fans, the stadium, or the atmosphere; we just have to think about ourselves, what we control on the pitch, with the ball. Play the same way that we played in the first game, and create chances to score goals.
“We are here just to write our own history. I think we win the game and go to the semi-finals, that’s what we want to do, that’s what we’re going to try and achieve.”
The first leg saw Jakub Kiwior come into defence following an injury picked up by Gabriel, and David was pleased with how our Polish international played against the likes of Kylian Mbappe and Jude Bellingham.
“I was impressed because I know how good Jakub is, and I’m very convinced and confident with him, stepping in after the big injury that Gabi sustained against Fulham,” he said.
“I wasn’t surprised about his performance, I thought he was very, very good, and we know how good he is, he shows in training every day, so I was very, very happy with his performance because that gives him confidence, but like I said, I wasn’t too surprised.”
Source: www.arsenal.com
