Peter Schmeichel has disclosed that following Arsenal’s last-minute defeat to Porto in the Champions League, the Arsenal players declined to participate in post-match interviews.
Despite dominating much of the game on Wednesday night at the Estadio do Dragao, the team from North London failed to register a shot on target and suffered a setback in the 94th minute when Galeno scored from long range.
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Arsenal still believe they have a good chance of reversing the scoreline in the return leg at the Emirates Stadium in two weeks, but it appears the squad was quite disheartened afterward.
Schmeichel, representing American broadcaster CBS Sports, was in Porto to conduct pre- and post-match interviews, but found himself waiting in vain as the Arsenal players did not show up.
Despite UEFA’s requirement for clubs to make players available for interviews, it seems that they only fulfilled the minimum obligation. Schmeichel disclosed that CBS was ignored after Porto’s late victory, as none of the Arsenal players were willing to face the media.
When questioned by studio pundit Jamie Carragher about the number of Arsenal players he interviewed, Schmeichel responded, “Zero.”
‘Obviously very few of the Porto players are speaking English so we asked for Arsenal players and it was all fine until, of course, that goal went in.
‘And the PR people have now come out and said, “Listen, there’s nobody who wants to speak to anyone”.
‘But I have to say, Mikel Arteta came out and he obviously did the rounds and he was alright.
‘I was told to only ask three questions, I wanted to ask him a little bit more, but he was kind of alright, he understands that this is life in the Champions League away from home.
‘You have to be disciplined all the way through because if not, that happens.’
It’s worth mentioning that David Raya spoke to TNT Sports, the Champions League rights holder in the UK, while Declan Rice also participated in multiple interviews.
Schmeichel directly inquired with Arteta about the challenge of addressing the media after conceding late in the game, to which the Spaniard responded: ‘It’s a very hard one to take.
‘But this is the Champions League, you make a mistake, we didn’t manage the game well in that last minute with three giveaways in our own half, and you pay the price.
‘This is the quality of the opponents in the Champions League. But now it’s clear what we have to do. If we want to be in the quarter-finals we have to beat them and we’re going to be very ready to do that.’
