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Arsenal go into the quarter-final second leg against Sporting CP with a slender lead and David Raya believes the Gunners have what it takes to go all the way in the Champions League
David Raya has claimed Arsenal can "100 per cent" win the Champions League after their 1-0 victory against Sporting CP on Tuesday.
The goalkeeper made a number of impressive saves in the quarter-final first leg clash to keep the score at 0-0 before Kai Havertz scored a stoppage-time winner to hand the Gunners a major advantage going into the second leg at Emirates Stadium.
The Spain international, who was benched for both of Arsenal’s cup defeats to Manchester City and Southampton, more than proved his worth with a stunning early save to deny Maxi Araujo ahead of two further late interventions prior to Havertz’s injury-time winner. Raya’s clean sheet was his 22nd across 41 matches so far this season – which is four greater than any other goalkeeper across Europe’s top five leagues.
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And the Spaniard is now confident Arsenal will not just reach a second-successive Champions League semi-final for the first time in the club’s history, but go on to win the competition for the first time, too.
“We believe 100 per cent that we can win it,” Raya told Amazon Prime. “We have to go step-by-step and game-by-game and keep showing what we can do.
“We have to focus on the present, but we have full belief. If you don’t believe, you are never going to win it, so you have to keep believing no matter what you go through.
“We came from two losses, we had to learn from that and use the pain in our belly to express ourselves and be better every single day. That is really important and the message we have to send out there.”
Havertz came off the bench in Lisbon to score his fourth goal of the season. Injury has seriously impacted the German's gametime this campaign, with the former Chelsea man restricted to just 16 appearances so far.
The 26-year-old believes Arsenal can now go on to achieve something "very special" in the next couple of months. “We needed that as we were all frustrated with how the last couple of weeks went," he said.
“But now it’s time to move forward, it’s time to be positive and it’s time to all stick together. As a group – as players, staff and the fans – we’re all in this together and we still can make something happen this year.
"It can be something very special. That’s what we’re going to go for and now it’s time to win games.”
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