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Nicolas Jover and Kasper Hjulmand exchanged a few words during Arsenal's disappointing draw to Bayer Leverkusen in the Champions League on Wednesday night
Kasper Hjulmand has commented on his exchange with Nicolas Jover during Arsenal's clash against Bayer Leverkusen. Robert Andrich broke the deadlock shortly after the break, leaping above William Saliba at the backpost to head the ball past David Raya.
The Bundesliga outfit gave the Gunners a taste of their own medicine, scoring from a corner. The Arsenal coach, who joined Mikel Arteta in the technical area for the set-piece as he always does, was quizzed on his tactics by the Leverkusen boss when his side took the lead.
Jover took the enquiry in his stride, and he laughed it off. Speaking to reporters after the first leg of the Champions League last-16, Hjulmand recalled his light-hearted clash with Arteta's right-hand man.
Speaking on CBS Sports, the 53-year-old said: "No, he’s not a friend of mine, he used to work for Brentford, and when we went with the national team, I was discussing with Brentford if we could take him for some games, but it never happened.
"I’ve only met him a few times, so he’s not a friend of mine, but he just said, ‘yeah, you’re doing it also’, I said, ‘yeah, of course'. What I said in the press conference was not for Arsenal, it was in general – we do it, everyone does it.
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"I’m not blaming at all what Arsenal are doing, but I’m just questioning it. Is it in the rules that you can actually make these offensive blocks and just body check people without the ball in the area? That was just my question.
"He [Jover] said, ‘yeah, you’re doing it too’, yeah, I never said we didn’t."
Speaking to reporters ahead of the tie, Hjulmand said: "We set blocks to create space for other players. Sometimes it happens far away from the ball.
"And as I understand football, when you make a body check, the ball has to be in play. We all do it. I just wonder: is it within the rules that you can block without the ball being near you?"
Jover and the Leverkusen boss may have enjoyed their moment on the sidelines, but Arteta was livid. The Arsenal head coach said: "We wanted to start very strong in the second half and we’ve done completely the opposite.
"We started not paying enough attention on the kick-off which we already discussed before the match. So then they have a clear header and after that they score the goal.
"And then it’s obviously game on and the tide changes completely. So after that we had to stay emotionally very composed. We improved in certain areas. With the changes I think we improved as well.
"We had more presence, more threat on the wings. And at the end we found a way to draw the match. We knew that they had certain routines because they’ve done it a few days ago in the Bundesliga three times in a row, and we showed those images.
"But then actually you have to see it and do it. And we haven’t done it and we paid the price for it."
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