William Saliba's honest admission on PSG's quality over Arsenal - 'They ate us'

William Saliba acknowledged difficult start against in their semi-final first-leg match to an early strike by .

The Gunners fought on but were denied an equalising goal when VAR ruled offside before his header found the back of the net. And made a stark admission following the fixture which may concern some fans of the north London outfit.

He told , via : "We struggled a lot in the first 20 minutes. They ate us a bit. We did a lot of running, chasing the ball. We were better at the end of the first half."

READ MORE:

READ MORE:

However, the centre-half also did his best to reassure fans that next Wednesday's second leg will play out differently, reports . He added: "It's not over. We hope to win there.

"We need to take the positive, we can't give up. It's the Champions League. A lot can happen. We'll need to show our character."

also expressed confidence in Arsenal's ability to come back in the second leg at Parc des Princes, drawing parallels with their convincing home victory against . Speaking after the match, he said: "We're at half-time.

"Half-time and my message is exactly the same following us beating Real Madrid at home 3-0 - that we have to go to Paris and win the game. We are more than capable of doing it because I saw two very good teams with margins that are so small.

"They had efficiency in front of the goal and their keeper as well made a difference to see the result that we've seen tonight. Certainly, when you score a goal and concede one, you have to. But we did a lot of things very well as well.

"We had a spell in the first half and the game had phases. The first 15-20 minutes, especially them scoring so early in a great combination, playing when the margins as so small, the finishing is unbelievable.

"And then we had especially one issue that we corrected after 15-20 minutes and we sustained that for the rest of the game, which I think turned the game around. If you want to win the Champions League final, you have to do something special and we're going to have to do something special in Paris to be there."

On the flip side, PSG boss Luis Enrique remained cautiously optimistic about the second leg, stressing the unpredictable nature of the tie. He explained: "We've reached our first objective with tonight's result, which could have been a draw or a 2-0 win – but nobody can change the result now.

"The objective now is to win the next match, and we can't take any chances, because with one goal suddenly the tie could be level again. We lost at home and then we went to Anfield and got the win – now we're ahead, but Arsenal could score themselves in Paris.

"They have nothing to lose, they're behind in the tie. It's going to be a fascinating match for football fans, but a bit tougher on the managers."