• Champions League

Mertesacker and Ramsey rue Arsenal's first-leg mistakes

Arsenal captain Per Mertesacker said Monaco deserved to progress to the Champions League quarter-finals after a second leg filled with drama and tension at the Stade Louis II stadium.

No side have come from two goals behind to win a Champions League knock-out tie in the away leg, but a late goal from Aaron Ramsey moved Arsenal level on aggregate in a tie that appeared to be lost for the Premier League after a 3-1 first leg defeat at the Emirates Stadium.

With the score tied at 3-3 on aggregate, Arsenal had a chance to snatch a dramatic winner and yet for a fifth successive season, they are lamenting what might have been at the last-16 stage of the Champions League.

"I think the best team went through, they deserved it because they played much better in the first leg," Mertesacker told ITV Sport. "We had to come back from a massive deficit and we played well in this game, but it wasn't enough.

"We came here and tried to forget everything and when you look at the game, we could have scored more than two goals. After the first leg, it was already over and we tried to come back. We didn't do enough.

"They deserve it. Away from home they played much better and we had a lot of problems. We responded well, but our regrets all go to the first leg. If you have one bad game in the Champions League, you are out. Even against a team that was underestimated by the public, but they deserved it."

"If we continue to play like this, we have a great chance in the FA Cup and in the Premier League."

Ramsey was equally frustrated in his post-match interview, as he suggested Arsenal's latest near miss in the Champions League wasn't acceptable.

"We have played Bayern Munich and Barcelona [in recent years] and no disrespect to Monaco, but we felt we would have a really good chance of qualifying," the Welshman said.

"We gave ourselves a tough test from the first game and we have nearly done it, but that seem to be the case every year. We have some great quality in this team and we will stick by each other and take encouragement from this.

"We still have the FA Cup to go and I'm sure there will be more twists and turns in the Premier League, so we have to keep going."

Goals from Olivier Giroud and Aaron Ramsey were not enough for Arsenal © Getty Images

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