Aaron D’Antino reacts to 2-2 draw with Paris FC
Arsenal’s assistant coach Aaron D’Antino faced the press after the 2-2 draw with Paris FC this evening.
Here’s what he had to say.
On how the players and manager are feeling …
It’s incredibly disappointing, or frustrating I should say, because we felt like for large periods of the game we had good control. They are a counter-attacking team, that is their threat, so we were aware of that. And yes, the first moment we need to the first goal, we can defend it better from the first phase.
But there were periods of the second half that we were really happy with our attacking intent and that’s a key area that we’ve been working incredibly hard on and we thought we got some good rewards. And then the way that the game ends is incredibly disappointing. We didn’t think it was a penalty, we don’t think the goal kick had actually been taken for what we had seen.
But it goes to VAR and apparently that’s a penalty.
Reflections on what Arsenal did for the penalty incident…
Yes, we don’t put ourselves in that situation in the first place. If we’re looking at what we can control, it’s just passing the ball to Leah from what I remember seeing, the ball was still rolling and she was moving it to Leah for her to take the goal kicks as we normally do. So maybe the learning in that is how we get the ball to Leah, so we don’t put ourselves in that situation.
But yes, like I said, as far as we’re concerned, that’s not [a penalty]. We haven’t taken a goal kick, there’s no advantage gained by Leah stopping the ball. But as an example of refereeing decisions, we just can’t put ourselves in that situation in the first place.
Is there regret at ‘dropping off’ at 2-0 up?
Yes, more so just capitalising on the chances that we have, whether that’s the last pass, whether that’s execution on the final contact. They’re the details that ultimately will decide a game for us, for the team that we are and who we want to be, killing games off. We have to capitalise on those moments.
Part of the frustration is we saw the best of us in the final third tonight, and a real progression in some of the details we’ve been working on. But ultimately, that ball needs to go in the back of the net another time to really kill the game off.
Was Arsenal’s final third play improved on previous games this season?
For what we’re working on behind the scenes, everyone, yes. But ultimately, we dropped points. It’s a tough place to come.
It’s a valuable point to pick up in Europe, but to have a two-goal lead with the improvements that we’ve been looking for in the final third, ultimately we need to kill the game off and maximise that. So it is conflicting feelings in terms of things we’ve been working on, but ultimately we need to take maximum points.
On conceding the first goal, and leaving too much space for the opposition …
As I was just saying, we knew that that was their threat, so there are small positional details that we need to adjust to not give teams that opportunity. But we were aware of that and playing high and being brave in our positional detail to try and capitalise on moments in the final third and really suffocate teams there is part of the way that we play.
Ultimately, for those moments, and I thought we managed those moments for a large part of the game incredibly well, but we can’t allow teams back in.
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