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Arsenal captain Laurent Koscielny believes the Europa League is a ‘top competition’,
The Gunners are in the second successive season of tackling the second tier of European football after failing to return to the Champions League.
Arsenal made light work of the group stages, but shockingly lost their round of 32 first leg clash with BATE Borisov last week – the return leg to come on Thursday.
Despite being humiliated by a team are in the middle of pre-season, their entire squad costing £200k and with a stadium capacity of just 13,000, Koscielny insisted it’s still a top-level tournament.
Arsenal suffered a humiliating defeat in Borisov last week
As reported by the Metro, hen asked whether Arsenal miss playing in the Champions League, Koscielny responded: ‘No, no. The Europa League is still a big competition.
‘It is still a European cup, but of course when you are in the Champions League you want to be in there every year and next season we want to be in the Champions League.
‘But the Europa League this season still has a lot of big teams, it is a top-level tournament, there is Chelsea, Napoli, Valencia so it I think it is a big competition, more than last year, and every year it is more intense.
‘Last year Atletico Madrid won the cup, so for us it is big opportunity to go in the Champions League.
‘Now we have a game in front of us like tomorrow to get to the next rounds and try to get to the final and be in the Champions League next season.’
Arsenal reached the semi-finals of the competition last season – losing to eventual winners Atletico Madrid – and had been tipped to go far again under this term under three-time winner Unai Emery.
Fingers crossed the guys can turn the 1-0 deficit around Thursday night.
