Clarence Seedorf believes Arsenal should be considered favourites to win the Champions League after Paris Saint-Germain’s 5-4 win against Bayern Munich on Tuesday night.
PSG edged a thrilling match at the Parc des Princes with Khvicha Kvaratskhelia and Ousmane Dembele both scoring twice, while Joao Neves scored a header from a corner.
Harry Kane, Michael Olise, Dayot Upamecano and Luis Diaz found the net for Bayern as PSG squandered a 5-2 lead in the second half.
During his post-match analysis for Prime Video, Wayne Rooney criticised both teams for their poor defensive display and claimed even PSG’s players would be unhappy with the result having conceded four goals.
‘I think Luis Enrique is a top coach so when they had the advantage at 5-2, I think then he should have said, ‘right, let’s shut up shop, let’s get behind the ball, make it hard, see the tie out’, potentially that would’ve got them to the final but they didn’t, they went for more goals,’ Rooney said.
‘Vincent Kompany has got a very attack-minded team, and I think you could clearly see they haven’t worked that much on defending because some of the goals we’ve seen are schoolboy goals.
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‘At this level, we’ve seen some brilliant but immature defending, which is crazy.
‘I’d love to play in a game like that but I used to pride myself on defending so I think I would’ve been upset that we conceded that many goals.
‘I think overall going into the game next week, I’d be much happier being Bayern Munich. To leave here with only a goal [behind], knowing that you can score goals against PSG, you can tighten it up a little bit, I think the advantage is with them [Bayern].’
Seedorf, a four-time Champions League winner, then suggested that Arsenal, who play Atletico Madrid in the first leg of their semi-final tie on Wednesday night, could be considered the strongest team remaining in the Champions League due to their defence.
‘Ask the goalkeepers if they’re happy. They are not happy, a clean sheet was always sacred for goalkeepers,’ Seedorf said.
‘We have seen a team like Arsenal making that difference this year, having so many clean sheets and coming all the way.
‘So if I had to point out one team now, that would be capable to actually bring it home because of that capacity, actually it’s Arsenal.’
Rooney went on to add: ‘I don’t see how, if you’re a player or a coach, no matter if you’ve won the game, you go into that game having conceded four or five goals and be happy. I think there’s got to be questions asked.’
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