Arsene Wenger says Arsenal are ready to make history and overturn Monaco deficit
19:59, 16 March 2015
By John Cross
No team has ever come back from this position in the Champions League era, but the Gunners boss believes his side will make a mockery of the stats books
Arsene Wenger last night claimed Arsenal are ready to make history - and promised to "make the statistics lie."
Gunners boss Wenger needs a miracle as no team in the Champions League era has come from a two goal deficit in the first leg and still gone through.
The last team to do it was Ajax in 1969 when they came from behind against Benfica and eventually went through after a replay.
Monaco have not conceded three goals at home in a single game for three and a half years and it leaves Wenger admitting the odds are stacked against them.
But Wenger, making his first return to former club Monaco, said: "We are here for that. Monaco is in a very strong position, but we have experience, the desire and belief we can do it, so let's go out there and give everything we can to do it.
"The history doesn't matter. The statistics are against us. The result in the first leg is against us. We are conscious about there.
"No matter how big the percentage is we have to give absolutely everything to make the stats lie. That's our desire and belief that we can do it.
"I'm not worried about that because the desire is there, the belief is there. Football is not predictable but I can predict that the desire and belief will be there to do well.
"We have played in the Champions League last-16, we have experience, we know that anything can happen but on a positive front as long as we believe we can do it and I am confident we will."
Arsenal have come desperately close to pulling off great fight backs in the recent past when they lost 3-1 at home to Bayern Munich two years ago, won the second leg 2-0 and went out on away goals.
They also lost 4-0 at AC Milan, went 3-0 up by half time in the return but couldn't complete the job.
Arsenal had a terrible night in the first leg both defensively and up front as in-form Olivier Giroud had a nightmare and Per Mertesacker admitted that defensively they were not good enough either.
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Mertesacker said: "I think we are coming out of a great week with two important wins. We have a good level of confidence.
"There has always been a good mood in the squad and during the season we responded well at times but we have to face the truth, we have to show a different face tomorrow but you need to embrace the challenge.
"Obviously they have a good side - they showed that against us - but we arequite confident at the moment and we want to put things right.
"We know that first leg we weren't really up for it mentally as well. From the start you could feel that and at times we could feel that there was a bit of a pressure and we couldn't cope with that.
"We feel like, especially after that game, we moved on and improved a lot.
That is why we are very confident that, even away from home, we can beat any team in the world."
