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 tonight's Champions League round of 16 second leg with Bayer Leverkusen, Martin chats about the dramatic win against Everton, Max Dowman's goal and what it was like to star in his own documentary. Here is a snippet:
That was a very special end to the game against Everton on Saturday. It was another important win, and for Viktor and Max to come off the bench and score the goals at the end shows us what we’ve been speaking about all season, about how everyone is stepping up and playing their part, whether they start the game or not.
What a moment that was for Max! You could see from the celebrations what it meant to everyone – coaches, players, supporters. It was something he will never forget, and neither will we! The way he kept his composure wasn’t a surprise to me. We’ve trained with him for a long time already, he shows us his qualities whenever he plays, so it was great for him to get his first goal and break the record. He knows it should be just the start for him and he needs to keep working how he has been.
Again, I was so disappointed not to be involved in the game. I’m working hard to be back as soon as I can, and I’m feeling stronger all the time. I was in the stadium on Saturday though of course, watching the game with my brother, who you might have seen on the Modern Leader documentary on the Arsenal App.
It’s great that the documentary is out now, because we were working on it for a long time, so I’m glad the supporters can finally watch it.
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Making the programme was not something I am really used to, having the cameras around that much, but hopefully it’s nice for people to see a bit more of what it’s like to see the other side of my job or my role in the team, away from the pitch. When I was young, I always enjoyed watching behind-the-scenes stuff of footballers or teams, so I thought it would be a nice thing to do myself.
There's probably a lot of things in there that people didn’t know I was doing or that the team was doing. From what I've heard back, people like it – it was a bit weird for me to watch it myself but I enjoyed it! I think it was probably more weird for my brother and my best mate to be involved, because they aren’t used to being in the media of course. I thought it was important for them to be a part of it though, and for me as well to have the people I’m close to involved. Hopefully they are proud of it too.
I would say it was an OK result from the first leg in Germany. Of course we wanted to get the win, that’s what we went there for, but when you are 1-0 down and get the goal late in the game it makes you feel a bit better. We’re never completely happy if we don’t win though, and we wanted to keep our winning run going in Europe as well. But saying that, it’s never easy to win away from home in the Champions League, and they are a very good team.
From our point of view there are things we could have done better in the first leg, but I thought we started the game really well. Had we scored early on over there maybe the game would have been different for us. But we are back here at home now, with everything still to play for in the second leg, so let’s make the most of that.
Being back at home tonight should be a big boost for us as well. Champions League games at Emirates Stadium are so special, these are the games you really look forward to. We remember those special knockout nights from previous years, against Porto and Real Madrid especially. They are big moments, and we want to create more of them.
Read the rest of Martin's notes, as well as a host of other fantastic content, by buying the Arsenal v Leverkusen programme either around the stadium oronline.
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