Wayne Rooney admits ‘very difficult’ feeling as Arsenal set Champions League record

Arsenal claimed a record-breaking 7-1 victory away to PSV Eindhoven in the Champions League round of 16 to put one foot into the quarter-finals of the competition

Wayne Rooney sympathised with PSV Eindhoven manager Peter Bosz after the Dutch side were beaten 7-1 by Arsenal on Tuesday.

Six different players were on target for the Gunners in the first leg of their Champions League round of 16 tie, with captain Martin Odegaard scoring twice. It was the first time a team has ever scored seven times away from home in a knockout match in the competition’s history.

Rooney was back on punditry duty after his own recent foray into management didn’t go to plan. He took charge at Plymouth Argyle over the summer but was sacked in December with the team sat bottom of the Championship.

Things haven’t been quite as bad for Bosz, who is still on course to qualify for next season’s Champions League through PSV’s league finish and oversaw a play-off victory over Juventus to set up the meeting with Arsenal. The heavy home defeat all but ends their adventure this year, though, and Rooney recognised how tough it must have been for the Dutch manager to face the media afterwards.

“It is very difficult as a manager to come out and face the media after a bad result like this one. I’ve been there,” Rooney said on Amazon Prime’s coverage.

“I’m sure in the build up to the game Peter Bosz had done the tactical work and thought he had found the right way how to play against Arsenal. Arsenal were just far too superior. He deserves a lot of credit for coming out and facing the questions.”

The former England striker also gave Arsenal credit for making sure with their four second-half goals. “Once Arsenal went to five goals it is easy to take the foot off the gas at that point and see the game out. But they kept going and tried to score more goals,” he continued. “They deserved the sixth and the seventh goals because of the application and the desire they showed.”

Were you surprised by the result in Eindhoven? Have your say in the comments section

Bosz didn’t mince his words when assessing the performance, which saw them concede more goals than they let in across their five other home Champions League games this season. “Terrible night for us,” the 61-year-old said.

“No chance. Maybe two moments in the game – our first chance after 15 minutes when we hit the bar and the second yellow [avoided by Myles Lewis-Skelly] were moments to come back in the game. Football wise we had no chance. We were not in our best form. Arsenal played fantastic, we had no chance tonight.”

When asked if the manager or the players were to blame, he said: “Probably both. Poor from or side, absolutely. Not at all our football we play normally and Arsenal did really well.

“We had a plan we analysed them we thought that we could hurt them somewhere but if you look at how we defended, really poor. You can not be successful if you play this way.”

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