Hjulmand proud of Bayer Leverkusen´s Champions League efforts

Kasper Hjulmand says Bayer Leverkusen can be proud of their efforts in the Champions League.

Leverkusen lost 2-0 to Arsenal at Emirates Stadium on Tuesday, as the Premier League leaders booked their place in the last eight with a 3-1 aggregate win.

Eberechi Eze and Declan Rice scored the goals for the Gunners.

Leverkusen have now been eliminated from all seven of their Champions League round of 16 ties, extending their own worst 100% elimination rate at this stage.

However, Hjulmand feels they can look back on this campaign with plenty of pride.

He said: “I arrived in September and had 14 new players in the squad.

“We had a bit of a bumpy start and then we did some very good things. I think we’ve played better and better – we went to Benfica and won, we went to [Manchester] City and won, and beat Olympiacos 2-0 in the knockout phase play-offs.

3 – Arsenal have reached the @ChampionsLeague quarter-finals for the third consecutive season.

It is only the second time in the club’s history they have achieved such a streak, after 2007/08 to 2009/10.

Standards. pic.twitter.com/3NSaws0R1G

— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) March 17, 2026

“I think we can be proud of how much we achieved in a build-up season like this.

“We also see there’s a difference between us and the very best in Europe and we are aiming for that, so we can get back into this beautiful tournament and try to compete again. That’s our focus.”

Arsenal had 12 shots on target, their joint-most on record (since 2003-04) in a Champions League knockout stage match (also 12 v Porto in March 2010).

It took a stunner from Eze for Mikel Arteta’s team to break the deadlock, though.

“In the first half, we made too many mistakes in our build-up situations,” Hjulmand added.

“Arsenal put a lot of pressure on us, but we didn’t concede many big chances, just some set pieces, and then Eze scored this fantastic goal.”