Bernd Leno deservedly took the man of the match award as Arsenal beat Liverpool 5-4 on penalties to secure a place in the Carabao Cup quarter-finals.
The Germany international made a number of noteworthy saves as the game ended 0-0 after 90 minutes at Anfield and then denied Divock Origi and Harry Wilson in the shootout to give Joe Willock the chance to net the winner.
After the game, the German face the Sky Sports cameras. Here’s what he had to say…
On the performance…
It was a very tough game. We did a few changes but you could see our philosophy, our intention to win this game. Of course, it’s only the Carabao Cup but we wanted to go through to the quarter-final because it’s a chance to win another trophy. That was our target. Luckily we won the penalty shootout.
On his saves over the course of the evening…
I don’t mind, we won this game. It’s very good for a goalkeeper to save some penalties and see laughing faces after the game. I prefer next time to win this game without a penalty shootout but if it finishes like that all the better.
On Joe Willock’s (not very good) winning penalty…
It was not the best penalty but at the end the ball was in. That’s the main thing and we won this game. That’s it.
On winning on Thursday after losing on Monday…
Of course, it’s not easy. Like I said, we made some changes to have fresh blood in the team. Of course, it’s not easy to come to the same place after a big disappointment. We expected a bit more on Monday. We analysed the game, the manager found the right words to keep our heads up and I think you could see that tonight.
On whether he feared losing his status as the club’s first choice keeper…
No, I’ve never feared it. The club always gave me the feeling that I was the number one, I am the number one and I would be the number one. That was always very good from the club. My job is to prove it every week. I think I’ve done it today again.
Well done Bernd, decision justified.
Time will tell if it was the correct decision.
Hes just a german pickford
Not world class but the class or 2 below
Will cost us points this year guaranteed
League cup win cannot justify anything
yes you did sir take a bow
The draw is really fixed isn’t it?
Man C was the only team I wanted to avoid.
Maybe… but we beat them in the FA Cup just recently (thanks Auba!) and they did not look too hot vs Leicester last weekend.
Leicester, Liverpool, Man City… there’ll be no one any good left if we win the next game. Just small teams like Stoke and Man United.
Both in the interview and on the pitch… Leno came through with a BIG energy today. Wow
came through with a big energy. yeah whatever that means
That performance will settle a lot of nerves regarding our keeper decision. For Martinez’s aerial dominance and handling, Leno is probably the better shot-stopper.
Id say martinez is the better all round keeper. Leno is good as well and done a great job tonight.
Bernd was Spiderman tonight. Well done, lad.
Confident guy
“the manager found the right words to keep our heads up a”
You did it Bernd! Get in!
You mean stay out don’t you? *wink*
Clearly we made the right choice and kept the right keeper. Much as I like Martinez, Leno is the better keeper. A MOTM performance as we laboured to close down players. Several times (Saka) guilty of taking too long to close the man crossing over to Jota in the box. Twice in first half Leno had to bail us out and then again in second half. We simply do not learn our lessons. We are marking zonal which affords Liverpool ability room to move off of our players as they know we won’t follow. We need to have better common… Read more »
I find myself in the weird place of agreeing with Santori for once that Leno is the better keeper, but I refuse to give him a thumbs up just as a general principle.
That’s why he stayed and Martinez didn’t – good though the latter was as a stand-in of course.
Well done Leno. Dont understand some people need to use this to knock Martinez who done a great job for us.
So then it was a conspiracy theory that Leno has to be number 1 no matter how good Martinez was going to be no wonder Martinez was sold. *Joking