Real Madrid boss Juan Lopez Caro insisted that he was proud of his players' performance despite their early exit from the UEFA Champions League round of 16 at the hands of Arsenal. "It's a big disappointment, but I'm proud of the players. They did all they could to turn the tie around," Caro told Spanish television after the match on Wednesday. Arsenal qualified to the Champions League quarter-finals after a 1-0 aggregate victory over the Los Merengues. Nevertheless, Caro blamed a multitude of reasons for their departure and praised Arsenal's spirit and team work.
Real ace David Beckham "We had our chances but we just couldn't finish off. It was a combination of bad luck, good goalkeeping and poor finishing. "Arsenal had their chances too and they did some excellent work as a unit," Caro said. With this result, Real notched their fourth consecutive defeat in the UEFA Champions League, after exiting last season's competition also from the second round at the hands of Italian giants Juventus, with their last UCL title won in the 2001/2002 season. Real, who sacked president Florentino Perez, suffered their latest setback after also exiting the Spain King Cup from the semi-finals and placing second in the La Liga standing, 10 points behind leaders Barcelona.
