"When I was at Madrid, the plan was not to go on loan"

Arsenal midfielder Martin Odegaard said he was always confident he would play in big games and in the Champions League, although he admitted that in football you never know and that when he was at Real Madrid, his plan was not to go out on loan.

The Norwegian player arrived at a very young age at Real Madrid and was sent out on loan several times until he signed for Arsenal.

"I was always confident that I would play important games and the Champions League. But football doesn't always go the way you expect it to. When I was at Real Madrid the plan was not to go on loan, but that's football and that's life," Odegaard told a news conference on Monday. 

Arsenal face Porto on Tuesday looking to overturn a 1-0 first-leg deficit and reach the quarter-finals of Europe's premier club competition for the first time since 2010.

"We spoke after the game. It wasn't our best game. We didn't do well with the ball. As soon as we finished we knew we had to do something different. It's the only game we haven't won this year, so that's motivation enough," he said. 

On Porto's "dark arts" and whether they will waste time to hold on to the result, Odegaard said that in the first leg the ball was stopped for a long time, but that it also happened to them this weekend against Brentford and that they dealt with it "brilliantly".

 

March 11, 2024