David Villa, whilst praising the performance of Arsenal, was in no doubt Barcelona deserved to win the first leg of their Champions League last-16 clash at the Emirates on Wednesday night. The Catalans dominated for long spells at the Emirates but Villa's opener was cancelled out by second-half strikes from Robin van Persie and Andrey Arshavin.

Villa said: "They (Arsenal) are a very good team. They've caught us on two counter-attacks and caused us a lot of damage. We were better but they hurt us on the counter.

"We didn't deserve this result. The scoreline, when we were 1-0 up, should have been bigger looking at the chances we had. But Arsenal are a great team and took advantage of their opportunity.

"(But) we have a team to get through. We will be ready for the day."