Fabianski not sure of FA Cup final place, dedicates win to fans

The Custodian April 13, 2014

Lukasz Fabianski has admitted that his heroic display in Arsenal’s penalty shoot-out win over Wigan in the FA Cup semi-final, might not be enough to for him to start in the final against Hull City.

The Polish stopper saved two penalties from Gary Caldwell and Jack Collison, as the Gunners kept the hopes of ending their nine-year trophy drought alive.

“I don’t know: it’s up to the boss but after my performance I hope that I can,” the 28-year-old said. “I’m very happy that we managed to go through to the final, it’s a really massive thing for us, especially after such a difficult game.

 “We showed character and we’re all pleased with the final result. I wasn’t thinking I was just reacting. To be honest with you I did some homework but none of them were on my list, the guys who stepped up to take penalties.

“So I was just guessing, it was more intuition rather than my homework that I’d done. I was surprised that Gomez didn’t step up as the first one. Then I saw Caldwell and Collison taking the pens, I was just guessing. I did look at youtube and things like that, but I didn’t see anything of Collison or Caldwell on there.

“For sure you could sense it in the crowd after we conceded the goal, there were a really stressful few minutes as we tried to get back in the game. After we managed to score the equaliser you could sense the relief, and from the penalties you could see the crowd react.

“I’m just hoping this will be great news for us, but we have a lot of tough games coming up and we have to focus.”

Fabianski, who dedicated the victory to Arsenal fans, also insisted that the game against the Lactics, was not a fight for Arsene Wenger’s future.

 “It’s always nice to win, I don’t know if it proves a point,” said Fabianski, whose two penalty saves secured victory for Arsenal. “To be honest when you play you don’t think about any of that, for me it’s all about winning the game, focusing on the moment and the day.

“That’s all we wanted, a win: we weren’t paying any attention to any outside things. In the club we are all quite smart: we knew we had to win the game because by winning this game it just picks us up as players.

“It picks up the club and the fans, it gives us more belief that we can manage first of all to finish in the top four, and then hopefully to win the final. I think it’s more for the fans, I think they have been waiting a long time and they show up every away game, win or lose they always follow. It was a great atmosphere today as well so it’s great to do it for them.”