Olivier Giroud has raised his game to another level after Theo Walcott took his place in the Arsenal team earlier in the season, according to Mathieu Flamini.
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They needed to win by any result other than 1-0 or 2-1 at a ground where they had lost on each of the last three visits to finish second behind table-toppers Bayern Munich.
“It was a wonderful team performance, both offensively and defensively, and I haven’t said that many times about Arsenal this season”, he said. “The last one was a penalty so we are really pleased to win tonight and go through to the next stage”. Our target is maybe to reach the quarter-finals. “It is a special night for us because, as we said before the game, we were in escape mode”. This was perhaps the best performance for Giroud in his entire Arsenal career, and it was his first hat trick ever with the team. They had suffered upset defeats at the hands of Olympiakos and Dinamo Zagreb in the first leg which had thrown a cloud over their chances of advancing to the pre-quarterfinals of the Champions League. It doesn’t matter who we get, if we all contribute and play like that then we can beat anyone on our day.
“We missed the chance two or three years ago and also this year in Monaco so it is nice to go through the group stage as we were not in a good position”.
Arsenal avoided the embarrassment of dropping into the second tier Europa League thanks to striker Olivier Giroud, who scored his first hat-trick for the club on Wednesday.
This time it was great work from Joel Campbell, once a loanee at Olympiacos, as he controlled an Ozil pass before producing the flawless pass into Giroud for him to sweep home.
But despite being impressed by Arsenal’s victory against the Greek outfit, former Gunner Merson doesn’t expect Arsene Wenger’s men to be able to win the competition.
In the Premier League, though, Arsenal have recently slipped up, losing at West Bromwich Albion and drawing away at relegation-threatened Norwich City.
This was a night, however, when no praise was too high for Arsenal and Wenger.
The draw for the last 16 will take place at UEFA’s headquarters in Switzerland on Monday.
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The Gunners have always been linked with the French global striker, despite the player seemingly happy and playing regularly for La Liga giants Real Madrid.
