Emmanuel Adebayor admits that beating Milan at San Siro will be even sweeter than if they had recorded victory in London a fortnight ago.
Arsène Wenger’s team had to settle for a goalless draw in the first leg at the Arsenal Stadium, with Adebayor missing a wonderful chance in added time when his close range header struck the bar.
However, despite causing Milan problems, the 24-year-old was impressed with how the ageing defence stood up to the onslaught.
“In the second half, maybe for 20 or 25 minutes, we started to put pressure on them,” he said. “But then you see [Kakha] Kaladze talking to [Paolo] Maldini, and the two of them are pretty much laughing together. They’re a team that are sure of themselves.”
Adebayor, with 19 Premier League goals to his name this season, has yet to score in the Champions League.
“The difference between the Champions League and the championship is that in the championship, sometimes when you lose the ball there might not be that much danger, but in the Champions League if you lose the ball in the opponent’s half it’s not good, if you lose it in your half, then you’re in real trouble,” he said. “The Champions League sometimes feels like you’re playing basketball – you lose the ball and then there’s a goal.
“Saying and doing are different things. You can talk about scoring two goals and saying then we’d qualify easily, but how are you going to score them, that’s the point,” he added.
“We were expecting a difficult game in the first leg, and we got one too. But now the fans can sit back and watch it on the telly, and now it’s up to us to try to take the game to Milan. And I think it would be even more beautiful if we do it over there.”
