{"id":481809,"date":"2026-03-18T07:40:10","date_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:40:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/481809\/"},"modified":"2026-03-18T07:40:10","modified_gmt":"2026-03-18T07:40:10","slug":"arsenal-need-to-be-more-clinical-to-win-champions-league-despite-bayer-leverkusen-victory-insists-karen-carney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/481809\/","title":{"rendered":"Arsenal &#8216;need to be more clinical&#8217; to win Champions League despite Bayer Leverkusen victory, insists Karen Carney"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"typo-tk-rs-caption-xs\">Highlights: Eze and Rice beauties see Arsenal into quarters <\/p>\n<p class=\"typo-tk-rs-caption-xs\">Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n<p>Karen Carney believes <a class=\"typo-tk-rs-body-md focus-visible:text-focused-text-fill-01 focus-visible:bg-focused-surface-fill-01 hover:underline focus-visible:outline-none text-content-block-default-text-fill-04 hover:text-content-block-default-text-fill-01 active:text-content-block-default-text-fill-03\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tntsports.co.uk\/football\/teams\/arsenal\/team.shtml\" data-testid=\"body-hyper-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Arsenal<\/a> will &#8220;need to be more clinical&#8221; than they were against Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday to win the <a class=\"typo-tk-rs-body-md focus-visible:text-focused-text-fill-01 focus-visible:bg-focused-surface-fill-01 hover:underline focus-visible:outline-none text-content-block-default-text-fill-04 hover:text-content-block-default-text-fill-01 active:text-content-block-default-text-fill-03\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tntsports.co.uk\/football\/champions-league\/\" data-testid=\"body-hyper-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">UEFA Champions League<\/a> this season.\u00a0The Gunners <a class=\"typo-tk-rs-body-md focus-visible:text-focused-text-fill-01 focus-visible:bg-focused-surface-fill-01 hover:underline focus-visible:outline-none text-content-block-default-text-fill-04 hover:text-content-block-default-text-fill-01 active:text-content-block-default-text-fill-03\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tntsports.co.uk\/football\/champions-league\/2025-2026\/arsenal-bayer-04-leverkusen_mtc1601214\/live-commentary.shtml\" data-testid=\"body-hyper-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">won 2-0 at the Emirates<\/a> thanks to sublime goals from Eberechi Eze and Declan Rice, earning them a 3-1 aggregate victory in the last 16 tie and a place in <a class=\"typo-tk-rs-body-md focus-visible:text-focused-text-fill-01 focus-visible:bg-focused-surface-fill-01 hover:underline focus-visible:outline-none text-content-block-default-text-fill-04 hover:text-content-block-default-text-fill-01 active:text-content-block-default-text-fill-03\" target=\"_self\" href=\"https:\/\/www.tntsports.co.uk\/football\/champions-league\/2025-2026\/glenn-hoddle-handball-decision-sporting-bodoglimt-uefa-champions-league_sto23281919\/story.shtml\" data-testid=\"body-hyper-link\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">the quarter-finals against Sporting CP<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, Rice told TNT Sports after the game that Arsenal &#8220;could have maybe scored three or four,&#8221; with Mikel Arteta\u2019s men managing 21 shots during the game.<\/p>\n<p>Contrary to her fellow TNT pundit and former Arsenal player Martin Keown, Carney believes the north London side will need to be more ruthless in the latter stages of the competition if they are to win their first Champions League title.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;I disagree, respectfully,&#8221; Carney responded after Keown said he was satisfied with the attacking display. &#8220;I think they do need to be more clinical. I think Declan said it as well. <\/p>\n<p>&#8220;When you get these opportunities, you maybe see other teams that have played in the competition already tonight, they&#8217;re clinical, they&#8217;re ruthless. When they get into the final third &#8211; bang. It&#8217;s that instinct, cut-throat.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"text-transparent h-full w-full object-cover\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/image-404555d9-951b-47fe-bd2d-9c1b93494cf1-85-2560-1440.jpeg\" alt=\"picture\" data-testid=\"image-high-res\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"typo-tk-rs-caption-xs\">Highlights: Chelsea capitulate in bruising defeat to ruthless PSG<\/p>\n<p class=\"typo-tk-rs-caption-xs\">Video credit: TNT Sports<\/p>\n<p>She added: &#8220;I think Arsenal have done a great job. I was confident. I knew they would get through. I thought they\u2019d be the better team &#8211; they&#8217;re stronger, they&#8217;re physical.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;But the better teams that you play at the real top, top tier of European football, it only takes one moment, and they have to take them, Arsenal.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;That&#8217;s my only criticism. They\u2019re finding their way, they&#8217;re in a great position in four competitions, but that last little bit in the finals, it&#8217;s going to be those moments.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>Leverkusen goalkeeper Janis Blaswich was in inspired form on Tuesday night, particularly in the first half, denying Leandro Trossard on three occasions and Gabriel twice before Eze opened the scoring after 36 minutes.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Despite converting just two of their 12 attempts on target, Arsenal did exceed their expected goals for the game.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>This was perhaps helped by the fact that both of their goals came from outside the area, with Eze rifling an effort into the top left corner before Rice stroked home into the bottom right corner in the second half.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Gunners were the top scorers in the league phase of this season\u2019s Champions League, with 23 goals across their eight fixtures.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>However, defending champions Paris Saint-Germain now top the charts for the campaign, having sealed an 8-2 aggregate victory over Chelsea on Tuesday after beating Monaco 5-4 over two legs in the play-off round, adding to their 21 goals from the league phase.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Arsenal remain the most prolific side in the Premier League, with 61 goals so far this season, bettering second-placed Manchester City\u2019s tally by one.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The Gunners will now face Sporting for a spot in a second successive semi-final, where they would face either Barcelona, Newcastle United, Atletico Madrid or Tottenham Hotspur.<\/p>\n<p>Up next, though, is the Carabao Cup final against City at Wembley on Sunday, when they will aim to win their first piece of major silverware since the FA Cup in 2020.  <\/p>\n<p>Stream the Premier League, UEFA Champions League, UEFA Europa League, UEFA Conference League, Men&#8217;s and Women&#8217;s FA Cup and more on TNT Sports and <a class=\"typo-tk-rs-body-md focus-visible:text-focused-text-fill-01 focus-visible:bg-focused-surface-fill-01 hover:underline focus-visible:outline-none text-content-block-default-text-fill-04 hover:text-content-block-default-text-fill-01 active:text-content-block-default-text-fill-03\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.discoveryplus.com\/gb\/en\/watch-tnt-sports-on-discoveryplus?utm_source=tntsports.co.uk&amp;utm_medium=referral&amp;utm_campaign=sportsEditorial-article-redirection&amp;utm_content=article_Body-Link_url\" data-testid=\"body-hyper-link\">discovery+<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Highlights: Eze and Rice beauties see Arsenal into quarters Video credit: TNT Sports Karen Carney believes Arsenal will&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":481810,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[116281,218,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-481809","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-champions-league-2025-2026","tag-football","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481809","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=481809"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/481809\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/481810"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=481809"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=481809"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=481809"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}