Nasri explains how Arsenal ‘sh*t’ themselves as they were outclassed by Man Utd in 2009 CL semis
Samir Nasri says Arsenal “sh*t” themselves in their 2009 Champions League semi-final loss to Man Utd as they were outclassed by their Premier League rivals.
The Gunners lost 4-1 on aggregate to Sir Alex Ferguson’s side with the Red Devils going on to lose 2-0 to Barcelona in the final in Rome.
Arsenal beat AC Milan and Villarreal on their way to their semi-final against United and, in an interview with ZackNaniProd, Nasri has opened up about his time in the Premier League and how Arsenal failed to show up on the big occasion.
Nasri said: “It was the first time I’d seen the Emirates with such a crazy atmosphere, you had flags everywhere and all!
“When you go into a match with shivers down your spine, you can feel you’re going to have a great game.
“And we sh*t ourselves. We sh*t ourselves, and we came up against a great Cristiano Ronaldo.’
The Frenchman spent three years at Arsenal under Arsene Wenger before moving to Premier League rivals Manchester City in 2011.
Before that, Nasri had the opportunity to swap Marseille for Lyon but, despite a better offer from the French side, he choose to move to Arsenal.
Nasri added: “They do that with Franck [Ribéry]. The following year, they came to see me in Cassis, at the time with Jean-Pierre Bernès. There was Bernard Lacombe and Rémi Garde. We discussed carefully, they made a better contract offer than Arsenal. But I couldn’t go to Lyon.
“I’m from Marseille, I couldn’t. I give the agreement to Arsenal and there is President Aulas who calls me and makes another offer. When I looked at him, I was like ‘oh’. But no, I went to Arsenal.”
And Nasri thinks Arsenal were hard done to in their 2011 Champions League last-16 defeat to Barcelona after Robin van Persie was shown a second yellow card for kicking the ball away in the second leg.
At that point the Gunners were 3-2 up on aggregate but Barcelona scored another two goals to turn the tie on its head and move into the quarter-finals.
Nasri reflected: “We played with an injured [Cesc] Fabregas – who wanted to play anyway, because it’s against Barcelona and he was leaving – and Van Persie gets a red card, because he hadn’t heard the referee’s whistle.
“Try playing with ten men at the Nou Camp, where the pitch feels like twice the size of the one at your stadium, and you already weren’t seeing much of the ball. We were robbed in that game.”
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