Olivier Giroud grabbed a superb hat-trick as Arsenal crushed Olympiakos Piraeus 3-0 to book their spot in the Champions League’s last 16 with a classy demolition job that ended the hopes of their Greek opponents on Wednesday.
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Giroud duly despatched the resulting penalty to complete his hat-trick and send Arsenal into Monday’s draw for the first knock-out stage as they saw out the remainder of the contest with minimal fuss.
“It was a wonderful team performance, both offensively and defensively, and I haven’t said that many times about Arsenal this season”, he said.
We had a flawless performance on the tactical and mental side too. Hopefully if we can get players back fit as well, the squad will be even stronger than it is now.
Arsenal striker Theo Walcott believes the club’s qualification for the knockout stages of the Champions League has provided the Gunners with a timely confidence boost ahead of the busy Christmas schedule.
“Our fans should be proud though… the team gave all they had and it’s significant that we were in with a chance of qualifying for the second stage in the last round of group matches”.
“We have escaped and maybe it’s a lucky year for us in the Champions League”.
“If you look at the players who are out and the performance we produced, it was outstanding”. You’ve seen teams struggle when they should go through and should be winning.
The first goal came in the 30th minute when Arsenal’s maestro Mesut Ozil passed the ball to Aaron Ramsey, who found Olivier Giroud in the box and delivered him the flawless cross.
The France global headed home in the first half before sealing their passage by striking twice more after the break as they exceeded the two-goal winning margin they needed to qualify.
Arsenal could now face Andre Villas-Boas’ Zenit St Petersburg, Manchester United’s conquerors Wolfsburg or one of the Spanish trio of Real Madrid, Barcelona or Atletico Madrid in the next round. “I always said he has something special on that front and he showed that again”.
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Yet it was the way in which they got the result they needed despite a spate of recent injuries that had Wenger purring. We’re really pleased to go through. He doubled his tally with the crucial second goal early in the second half, getting on the end of Joel Campbell’s excellent pass to slot home. We were so almost out that I put all my focus into staying in this competition.
