David Raya: Arsenal can contemplate getting their hands on the Champions League | OneFootball

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David Raya said Arsenal can now afford to dream of European glory and insisted his team-mates will do everything in their power to deliver the club’s first Champions League title.

Arsenal are now just one tie away from the final following their historic 2-1 win against Real Madrid in the Bernabeu which completed a historic 5-1 quarter-final aggregate triumph.

Arsenal will now face Paris St Germain in the last four with the first leg at the Emirates on April 30 before the return rubber at the Parc des Princes eight days later.

It marks the first time Arsenal have reached this stage of the competition in 16 years. Their sole appearance in a final was their 2-1 defeat to Barcelona in Paris three years earlier.

“We said ‘we are here to create our own history’, and that’s what we did,” said goalkeeper Raya in the wake of Arsenal’s brilliant win in Spain.

“The way we came to the Bernabeu and the way we played, the way we defended, the way we created chances, we kept them quiet and in the second half, they created chances and they took one and we took our chances and we won the game and credit to us.

“It is a real statement, it was a very complete match, and it’s been very long (since Arsenal reached a semi-final) but we are here to create our own history and hopefully we can dream. We are going to try everything in our hands to do it but the main thing is going step by step and staying in the present.”

On their last semi-final appearance in 2009, Arsenal, then managed by Arsene Wenger, suffered a 1-0 first-leg defeat to Manchester United at Old Trafford before Cristiano Ronaldo ran riot at the Emirates in the next match with Sir Alex Ferguson’s side completing a 4-1 aggregate win.

However, Mikel Arteta’s current crop of players will be able to draw confidence from a comfortable 2-0 win over PSG at the Emirates earlier this season as they bid to overhaul the French champions for a spot in the showpiece in Munich on May 31 against either Barcelona or Inter Milan.

PSG have already beaten two Premier League sides en route to the last four after they saw off Liverpool in the round of 16 before denying Aston Villa a place in the semi-finals.

And Raya continued: “Yes, we beat PSG at home but they are a different team now, and they look even better than they did back in the group stage and that’s credit to them.

“They didn’t get easy games either, but for now let’s look to the present and focus on Ipswich (in the Premier League on Easter Sunday) and see when it comes to it.”