Arsenal's Mikel Arteta: "We have to do something special in Paris"

Mikel Arteta acknowledged his Arsenal side have to conjure "something special" if they're to overturn a one-goal deficit in their UEFA Champions League semi-final against Paris Saint-Germain.

Falling behind inside four minutes to Ousmane Dembele's 33rd goal of the season, the Gunners experienced a frustrating evening at the Emirates Stadium as they struggled to dictate proceedings.

The presence of Gianluigi Donnarumma also irked Arsenal as the giant Italian goalkeeper made crucial interventions to deny Gabriel Martinelli and Leandro Trossard.

Arsenal have it all to do if they're to reach their first UEFA Champions League final since 2006, especially against a side as formidable as the Parisians, who have only lost once at the Parc des Princes in the previous 12 months.

"If you want to win the Champions League final, you have to do something special. We're going to have to do something special in Paris to be there," Arteta said.

We have a lot of chances to be in that final.

"As I repeat myself, you have to do something special in the competition to have the right to be in the final" he added. "The time to do it is going to be in Paris.

"At the end, we have two of our front players one v one with Donnarumma. If they scored the goal it is different. He made the saves, like he did against Liverpool and Villa, and that's the difference in the Champions League."

Arsenal may want to draw on the spirit of their arch-rivals Tottenham, who were only the second team in UEFA Champions League history to lose the first leg of a semi-final at home and progress in 2019.

Spurs suffered a 1-0 defeat to Ajax at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and were on course for elimination as first half goals from Matthijs De Ligt and Hakim Ziyech put the Amsterdam outfit 3-0 up on aggregate, only for Mauricio Pochettino's men to stage the most incredible comeback courtesy of a Lucas Moura hat-trick.

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Jaquob Crooke

• Arsenal F.C.
• Paris Saint-Germain F.C.
• UEFA Champions League
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