Gilberto awaits ‘massive game’
March 5, 2007
Sky Sports have a good piece about Gilberto today. He talks about the PSV game:
Gilberto awaits ‘massive game’
Gilberto is confident Arsenal will progress to the quarter-finals of the UEFA Champions League.
The Gunners returned to winning ways on Saturday with a 2-1 victory over Reading, and Gilberto admits it was a crucial result following their recent problems.
Arsenal lost a tempestuous Carling Cup final to Chelsea last Sunday and were knocked out of the FA Cup by Blackburn in midweek, while they were also beaten 1-0 by PSV Eindhoven in the first leg of their Champions League second round tie.
But Gilberto feels his young team-mates will emerge stronger from the disappointing period and finish the season well.
“When you are young, it is quite difficult to cope with the pressure and the last few days have been hard for them – but they are learning,” said the Brazilian.
“We were a bit down and frustrated because of the results – and this (victory over Reading) was important because a win helps set us up for a massive game against PSV.
“It is the biggest game of our season because if we lose the season will be over in terms of trophies.
“We know that we can win against PSV because we played well there and it was only the result that was missing.”
Gilberto expects PSV to play a defensive game at Emirates Stadium and admits it will be tough to break them down.
“We are going to have to be patient on Wednesday,” he explained.
“They sat back against us, waited for our mistake and they capitalised when we lost concentration – but we have 90 minutes to win the game so it is important to remain calm.
“The rest of our season is in our hands – we have to keep pushing ourselves and fighting for the victories.”
Gilberto scored the fastest ever Champions League goal (in 21 seconds) against PSV Eindhoven in 2002, a repeat of that on Wednesday would be very nice!
More of this, please.