Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger toasted one of the greatest European nights of his long tenure after Olivier Giroud scored a hat-trick to complete a Champions League great escape in Greece last night.
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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. “In the last few weeks, we’ve lost so many players – (Alexis)Sanchez, (Santi) Cazorla among others”, said the Frenchman.
“The kind of performance we produced in a very heated atmosphere was ideal – on the mental front and the tactical side as well”.
“We needed something special and when you deliver something special it can create positive memories for the rest of the season”, he continued.
Theo Walcott today claimed Europe will be running scared of Arsenal after they thrashed Olympiakos to reach the last 16 of the Champions League.
Wenger’s side went into the game knowing they had to beat their opponents by two clear goals or win while scoring a minimum of three goals themselves to progress to the knockout stages. We knew we had to push for the third goal because it’s very risky at 2-0, and we had the ideal game.
“I told you before the game that it would be the greatest escape”, Wenger told BT Sport. This team really is a team and they showed it again.
“I have always defended his character”. Their starting lineup featured players such as Joel Campbell and Mathieu Flamini, who had previously been on the fringes, but both impressed and Wenger lauded his players’ reaction to adversity.
Giroud has eight Premier League goals in only nine starts, while another five goals in the Champions League makes him the club’s outright top scorer this season. In the 29th minute Arsenal’s Aaron Ramsey whipped in a fantastic cross that Giroud was able to head on target. “This team really is a team and they showed it again”, he added.
“The sort of attitude we had in the dressing room was “never give up”, he said. We knew what we had to do, we knew we had to score more than two goals, but we always felt that if we kept a clean sheet then we would win.
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“We were so much out of it that I put all my focus on staying in”.
