Arsene Wenger admitted Arsenal paid for their first-leg collapse as they crashed out of the Champions League at the last-16 stage for the fifth successive season . Their 3-1 first-leg defeat by Monaco at the Emirates came back to haunt them as they clinched a 2-0 win last night that sent them out on away goals . Wenger said : ‘ Football is not a fairytale . It ’ s just a matter of being realistic and clinical and Monaco were clinical in front of goal and maybe a bit lucky as well . Arsene Wenger saw his Arsenal side crash out of the Champions League on Tuesday . Monaco celebrated a place in the quarter-finals of the Champions League at the expense of Arsenal . Santi Cazorla reacts to Arsenal 's Champions League exit despite a 2-0 win in the second leg in Monaco . ‘ The performance was enough today and it could have been over at half time with the chances we had . ‘ We knew before the game we had a 98 per chance to go out . We did fight but I felt some players were jaded offsnsively as they gave a lot on Saturday and lacked bit of freshness . ‘ Overall we paid for the first game when we didn ’ t produce the game we wanted . But when Monaco played at home they had zero shots on target. ’ Olivier Giroud ’ s 36th minute goal and Aaron Ramsey ’ s strike in 79th minute gave Arsenal hope in a night on which they attacked throughout and did their utmost – but ultimately the damage had been done at The Emirates . Arsenal defender Laurent Koscielny said : ‘ We say the same thing every year . Our first game is catastrophic . We have to put it right ... play well in two games ’ Olivier Giroud scored Arsenal 's first goal at the Stade Louis II to give them hope of a comeback . Aaron Ramsey 's 79th-minute strike set up a grandstand finish , but Arsenal could n't find a vital third goal . Wenger added : ‘ It ’ s difficult to compare to the previous years because before we played against Bayern and Barcelona . We ’ re very disappointed to be out tonight but overall we ’ re on positive trend and this game on line with what we did recently . ‘ I would separate it from other years in which we have gone out . We ’ re very disappointed to be out of course bu there were a lot of positives in the games . But overall situation is very disappointing . Captain Per Mertesacker said : `` The best team went through . They deserved it because they played much better in the first leg . We had to come back from a massive deficit . We played well today but it wasn ’ t enough . ‘ You come here and try absolutely everything . You look at the game and we could have scored more than two . We don ’ t look back to the first game - that was already over - and we tried to do our best today but it wasn ’ t enough . ’
Arsenal withdrew from the Champions League on away goals rule . Arsenal beat Monaco 2 - 1 in the second leg but it was n't enough . Arsenal were beaten 3 - 1 in first leg at the Emirates and could n't qualify . READ : Arsenal admits Arsenal would be better off in Europa League . CLICK HERE for all the latest Arsenal fixtures .