ALONSO: "WE FOUGHT HARD BUT THE MARGINS ARE FINE AT THIS LEVEL"

Diego Alonso gave his thoughts on his side's defeat to Arsenal on Tuesday night: "The first half had its ups and downs but was fairly even. The nature of their first goal affected us, hit on the break when threatening to open the scoring ourselves. We were too open and then they used their quality to pounce on the loose ball and punish us. It wasn't until after they scored a second that we were able to stabilise, get back in the game and creating chances again. We weren't clinical enough once we had gone behind and lacked the precision to do serious damage to the opposition, which was of course our aim."

Despite the loss, the head coach took nothing away from the effort his players put in: "There are no complaints because the players left everything on the pitch and gave their all for the result. For large periods, we were a match for a high-quality team, but the margins are fine at this level and we must look to improve. Qualification is still in our hands and we will fight to reach the round of 16. Now it's time to clear our heads and go for the three points in LaLiga to get the team back to where it belongs."

Alonso rounded off by thanking the unconditional home support: "It was phenomenal in spite of the rain. We are nothing but grateful to the supporters for their backing and I think the players did everything they could to make them proud. The fans just want to see their team giving maximum effort and we showed that tonight."