Arsene Wenger: Monaco were fortunate to eliminate Arsenal

Monaco were fortunate to reach the Champions League quarter-finals on away goals, Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said on 17 March after his team's 2-0 win at Louis II was not enough to make up for their first-leg loss.

Monaco won 3-1 at the Emirates three weeks ago but were overwhelmed by a dominant Arsenal side in the return, although the visitors paid the price for wasting several good chances.

Wenger said: "I felt the performance was enough tonight, but it was a very difficult task. At half-time, the game could have been over with the chances we created, overall we pay that in the first game we did not produce the performance we wanted. Monaco played at home, have zero shots on target and yet go to the quarter-final," added the former Monaco coach.

Arsenal went ahead in the 36th minute when Olivier Giroud fired into the roof of the net and second-half substitute Aaron Ramsey doubled the tally 11 minutes from time with a low shot.

"I am very disappointed to go out tonight of course but there are lots of positive in the game. The overall situation is very disappointing. If you just look at the game tonight, it was a very positive game for us," Wenger said.

After scraping through on away goals, Monaco coach Leonardo Jardim reckons everyone will want them in the draw for the quarter-finals to be held on Friday (March 20) at UEFA headquarters in Nyon, Switzerland.

"First of all, the match was what we expected - an intense match. Our opponents capitalized from two mistakes in our defence's transition to score two goals but the most important was to go over this elimination round and we reached this objective," Jardim said.

Monaco's Portuguese coach added that the teams remaining in the competition had now learned the lesson that Monaco should not be underestimated.

"We are the only team that played in the last 16 that was not expected to be playing in the last 16. Because of that, the achievement of our group, and going through today, is a great reward for this team, mainly for our players."

Arsenal managed seven attempts on target while Monaco's only shot was off target but the principality side had not conceded three goals at home in more than three years.