{"id":637492,"date":"2026-04-29T02:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-04-29T02:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637492\/"},"modified":"2026-04-29T02:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-04-29T02:28:08","slug":"odegaard-tells-arsenal-to-channel-past-lessons-into-something-special-at-atletico-madrid-champions-league","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/637492\/","title":{"rendered":"\u00d8degaard tells Arsenal to channel past lessons into \u2018something special\u2019 at Atl\u00e9tico Madrid | Champions League"},"content":{"rendered":"

Martin \u00d8degaard has accepted that Arsenal<\/a> will remain open to criticism until they shed their nearly-men reputation and is confident the club are primed to do precisely that this season.<\/p>\n

The captain cut a convincing figure on the eve of Wednesday night\u2019s \u00adChampions League semi-final first leg at \u00adAtl\u00e9tico Madrid, insisting he and his \u00adteammates were ready to respond to the lessons of the past and deliver silverware.<\/p>\n

\u00d8degaard was referring to the Champions League semi-final exit against Paris Saint-Germain last season but he might also have been thinking about the Premier League runners-up finishes in each of the previous three years. Arsenal are top of the table and chasing a first league title since 2004.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always going to be there until we win and that\u2019s something you have to live with,\u201d \u00d8degaard said. \u201cWe need to take all our experiences and the lessons and use them in a good way. It\u2019s part of football and part of the journey.<\/p>\n

\u201cTomorrow against Atl\u00e9tico is another great opportunity for us to do something special. We know what\u2019s there and we just have to enjoy it and be ready for it \u2026 take all the lessons you know from the past and bring it into this end of season.<\/p>\n

\u201c We\u2019re in a great position to make history and that\u2019s what we want to do. I\u2019ve been in this club for a while now and I\u2019ve seen the progression since I first came and how much we\u2019ve improved. It\u2019s been amazing to be a part of that and I probably want to take that last step and do something really big. That\u2019s the biggest dream and what we\u2019re working towards every single day.\u201d<\/p>\n

There is a weather warning in place for Madrid, with an electrical storm and heavy rain forecast. It stands to affect the game and a pitch at the Metropolitano Stadium that has attracted criticism. Barcelona complained that the grass was too long after their Champions League quarter-final exit on it, while it was noticeable that some of the Tottenham players struggled to keep their feet as they lost here in the last 16, first leg. Mikel Arteta promised his squad would \u201cadapt to any context\u201d.<\/p>\n

The Arsenal manager reported that Kai Havertz was unavailable after he limped out of Saturday\u2019s league win over Newcastle. Eberechi Eze is in the squad despite a fitness concern in the same game while Riccardo Calafiori has also travelled.<\/p>\n

Arteta said: \u201cWe\u2019re going to see a team that wants to be dominant, that wants to win it and that wants to start to decide the tie tomorrow. Now is the moment to make a statement and show how good we are, how much we want it and to make it happen. The opportunity is in front of us and we have to attack it.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Martin \u00d8degaard has accepted that Arsenal will remain open to criticism until they shed their nearly-men reputation and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":637493,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,596,85],"class_list":["post-637492","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-football","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637492","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=637492"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/637492\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/637493"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=637492"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=637492"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=637492"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}