REPUBLIC OF IRELAND’S Katie McCabe has expressed her pride in her teammates following Arsenal’s heartbreaking exit from the Champions League.

Arsenal, who were aiming to reach the Women’s Champions League final for the first time since 2007, lost out to Wolfsburg last night in the semi-final. Pauline Bremer’s extra-time goal saw the German outfit beat the Gunners 5-4 on aggregate.

“I’m quite speechless,” McCabe told broadcaster Dazn after captaining her side on the night. She also came close to scoring, only to see her effort come back off the woodwork.

“I’m just so proud of the girls, we gave it absolutely everything out there today. We ran for each other, we worked for each other. We came back, girls came on, obviously [players] went off with injuries and then they scored the winner very, very late on. I’m just so proud of the girls and how we’ve given everything tonight and worked for each other.”

When asked about what she has learned from this campaign in light of Arsenal’s response to losing key players to injury this season, McCabe replied:

"I'm very proud of the girls!" 👏

Katie McCabe gives her post-match thoughts following Arsenal's loss to Wolfsburg.#UWCL pic.twitter.com/TzwDQ5W7JK

— DAZN Football (@DAZNFootball) May 1, 2023

“It says a lot about us, with losing really high quality players early on, and most recently, Leah [Williamson] and Kim [Little], our captain and vice-captain. So, it’s been difficult but we’ve stuck together and we’ve kept together and instilled that belief in us that we can go on and challenge in these sort of tournaments.

“It’s going to hurt getting knocked out at this stage and obviously how it happened but it’s about next season now in terms of Champions League. We need to keep pushing now in the league. We’ve got an important game on Friday against Leicester, making sure we’re secure in Champions League for next season.”

“It’s a credit to Wolfsburg, they kept it going. We made it difficult for them but I’m honestly just so proud of the girls.”

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