Michael Laudrup left frustrated as Swansea City are beaten by Arsenal
MICHAEL Laudrup was left frustrated as Swansea City were beaten by Arsenal at the Liberty Stadium this afternoon and admitted: "I thought it would be a draw."
Arsene Wenger's under-pressure Gunners side exacted revenge for their defeat by Swansea at the Emirates in December thanks to late goals from Nacho Monreal and Gervinho.
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Laudrup
The home side had started the contest brightly enough, but they lost their way as the game wore on and Arsenal's greater composure in possession eventually told.
Left-back Monreal netted for the first time since his January move from Malaga 16 minutes from the end before Gervinho sealed the victory in stoppage time.
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Swansea had seen chances go begging in the first period, first when Angel Rangel shot wide and then when Michu's low drive rolled just the wrong side of the post.
Yet Arsenal had threatened earlier too, with Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain twice hitting the woodwork.
"In the first half we saw some good football from both sides. They had a couple of chances and we had a couple as well, with maybe the biggest one for Angel" Laudrup said.
"In the second half there was much less good football in my modest opinion. There was a lot of play in midfield and not really many shots on target and I thought it was going to finish 0-0.
"But you know when things are like this that the first goal many times will decide the game, and that is what happened. It was a strange goal, but that decided the game."
Swansea battled hard throughout the game despite having little to play for in comparison to their opponents.
And Laudrup added: "I cannot say anything about the attitude of my players. Some players played better than others, but they tried," he added.
"It's important to try to find motivation in every game we play, and I think we did that."
4 Comments
by Hadoken375747
Monday, March 18 2013, 2:03AM
“I saw some great football from both sides, as I said, it probably should have been a free kick in the run up to the first goal and pablo give the ball away for the second goal in the dying minutes (but he does this at least 10 times a game-count it, the guy is on my sh17 list), so I'm not too bothered. Things like this can happen, we did it vs Arsenal a few months ago.
I even heard pundits saying swansea play like real madrid, and the other pundit said no, swansea pass it better!
I'm not gonna feel bad about losing to arsenal, who had beaten bayern munich 3 days before.
Less than 2 years ago it was an honor to play them!”
by sweetiepiedav
Sunday, March 17 2013, 5:01PM
“Give 'em a bonus.”
by abertawejack
Saturday, March 16 2013, 9:41PM
“To be honest here, I think the best team won on the day, though we had our chances especially in the first half and looked quite good passing the ball around. Their first goal came from a bit of a mix up in defence, yet we were unlucky not to get a goal. I feel a bit sorry for our Michu, he doesn't seem to get quality ball delivered to him like he used to, by more people trying a shot rather than give the ball to him, then again he was the only one up, when there should have been a lot more white shirts in the goal mouth vicinity. The team is still looking good but we need a bit more Hwyl in finishing, other than that. C'mon u Swanssssssssssssssssssssssssssyeehaa.”
by Hadoken375747
Saturday, March 16 2013, 6:21PM
“Not too bad, the teams we are realistically in contention with at the top of us are are liverpool (45) and west brom(44). Both of which had a loss and a draw today
Below us are Stoke on (34) and a bunch of teams of (33).
Lets not forget Arsenal just beat Bayern Munich 2-0.
We also have a tough game vs spure coming up, but after that we have a good run of winnable teams, the only issue is most of them are fighting for survival.
Pablo was not great again today and gave away the ball for the last goal, it PROBABLY should have been a free kick just before they scored, so I don't think we did that bad.
I'm more bummed out about cardiff winning and watford and hull losing, they keep blowing it, everytime cardiff stall, so does everyone else.
At least wales are looking good in the rugby!”