Villarreal’s Argentinian playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme is convinced the Spanish side end Arsenal’s nine-match run of clean sheets in Tuesday’s semi-final second leg.
Villarreal go into Tuesday’s semi-final second leg trailing 1-0 and Riquelme is confident that the deficit will be overturned at El Madrigal.
“The first leg gave us the belief we will score against Arsenal,” Riquelme told UEFA.com. “With hard work, confidence and discipline we will be fine.
“Our confidence has certainly not been dented by the first-leg result. I have said already that I like the way Arsenal play … but they have weaknesses – the same ones which every attack-minded team has.
“I’m sure that they will concede more than one at El Madrigal. That record has to come to an end some time. I don’t know one team that has stopped conceding goals in Europe forever.”
Riquelme’s confident words were echoed by teammate Diego Forlan, who is adamant that Villarreal will improve on their tame first leg showing.
“We didn’t keep the ball or create anything – we didn’t deserve to win,” Forlan told BBC Sport.
“But it’s not the end. We’ll try to go forward and put a lot more pressure on Arsenal at El Madrigal.”
The 26-year-old striker added: “There are only 90 minutes to go to the final and we need to give our all.
“Hopefully we can perform much better at home than we did at Highbury. We were not happy to lose but have still got a chance – we must be optimistic.”
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