Odegaard: “It’s all in our hands now” | Feature | News

Before every game at Emirates Stadium, Martin Odegaard lifts the lid on the mood in the camp via his captain’s notes published in the matchday programme.

Ahead of our Champions League semi-final second leg against Atletico Madrid, the skipper discusses how much the squad are relishing this occasion, last week’s first leg and wanting to continue our season-on-season progression. Here is a snippet:

We know exactly what we are playing for tonight – everyone is so excited for the chance to do something special for this club. This is the best part of the season to be involved in, it doesn’t get much bigger than playing a Champions League semi-final at home. Let’s enjoy it, be ready for it, and really go for it.

As footballers, we dream about these moments our whole life. You want to taste it and experience it, so when you do get that opportunity, you have to give absolutely everything. We know the club hasn’t reached the final for 20 years, so let’s go for it.

We had mixed feelings after the first leg out in Madrid, because we felt we could have won that game. That’s what we went there to do, and I think we had a good chance to do that in the end, especially when you consider the penalty situation late in the game.

We’ve played a few seasons back in the Champions League now, so we know about how VAR is used in these games and we are used to it. As players, it’s just something you have to deal with in these matches, but for sure it’s different to the Premier League, especially the handball rule. You have to adapt to the situation, because the penalty we had given against us is never a penalty in the Premier League. Whether we like it or not, those are the rules in this competition, we just have to deal with it the best we can.

We always want to win, but you take a draw away from home in the Champions League, especially at this stage, against a very strong opposition with their record at home, and now we can bring it back home to finish the job. It’s all in our hands now.

The atmosphere out in Madrid was really loud, it’s a great stadium to play in, and we handled the occasion really well. They are a strong opponent and everyone in the stadium was fired up for the game, but for us there are a lot of positives we can take from how we played against them last week.

Of course there were also some things we could have done better, and we have been looking at that ahead of tonight’s second leg. We know where we can improve, it’s down to us to deliver the needed performance tonight. When you play a two-legged match like this, the good thing is you already know your opponent well. Of course this is the third time we’ve played Atletico this season, after beating them in the league phase too, so we don’t have to spend a lot of time doing analysis of them. We know their approach, so we can focus on ourselves, play the game we want to play and correct the things we didn’t do well in the last game.

We all have full belief in what we are doing, and the energy in the group is great. We’ve put ourselves in this position through a lot of work all season, so now we want to go and make history.

I’ve been at Arsenal for a while now and I’ve seen the progression every year since I first came. The steps we’ve taken have got us here, and it’s been amazing to be a part of that. We want to take another step now, and do something really big. That’s the biggest goal, the biggest dream and that’s what we’re working towards every single day.

I feel like we’re stronger now as a group than we’ve ever been. We have learned from all of our experiences last year and we are even more prepared now for this. Being here tonight at Emirates Stadium for the second leg makes it even more special – let’s do it together!

Read the rest of Martin’s notes, as well as a host of other fantastic content, by buying the Arsenal v Atletico Madrid programme either around the stadium or online