Arsene Wenger insists his Arsenal side would take the Europa League seriously if they drop out of the Champions League.
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Olympiakos, which was thrashed 4-0 by leader Bayern, remains second but is now only three points ahead of an Arsenal side it beat in London in September.
Arsenal, third in the group, need to win tonight and hope Bayern beat Olympiakos – their final opponents in Greece next month. “We wanted to be in with a chance and now it’s down to how we do at Olympiacos”. How big, I don’t know, but we have a chance.
On 72 minutes Petr Cech was forced to make his first real save of the game when Laurent Koscielny’s clearance rebounded off Mathieu Flamini and nearly crept into the bottom corner of the net.
“We want to remain in the Champions League for sure”, said Mertesacker.
“Sometimes we have been there already qualified”.
Bayern obliged by running riot against their Greek opposition, meaning Arsenal will go to Athens on December 9 needing to avenge the 3-2 defeat they suffered at the hands of Olympiacos at the Emirates Stadium.
“We could still qualify from our group in the Champions League, so I’m not thinking about the Europa League”.
“You have to trust Uefa and the organisation over there to ensure it is handled well”.
Sanchez was magnificent as the Gunners kept alive their hopes of qualifying for the Champions League knockout phase for a 16th consecutive season, plundering two goals after Mesut Ozil had struck the opener.
Last week Wenger called for more blood testing in soccer.
“I don’t know how important Alexis is percentage-wise, he’s just a very important player”.
Whereas, for Zagreb, their 24-year-old midfielder, Arijan Ademi was dismissed by Federation Internationale de Football Association and will not be able to play for the club for the next four years due to the doping tests he was found positive for.
Dinamo Zagreb will be without Josip Pivaric after he was sent off in their last outing and Gordon Schildenfeld, who is still out as he recovers from a long-term thigh problem.
“We had 10 people on Friday to control us”.
Dinamo’s manager Zoran Mamic said it was fair that the win should count.
“We tried to do our best”.
“We’ve been hit very hard in November because until the Sheffield Wednesday game in the League Cup we had a good record, but since we have lost a few players”, said the Frenchman.
“They were really pressing”.
Having blown the lead given to them by Olivier Giroud, Wenger’s team still had a chance to rescue a point when they won a second half penalty, only for Santi Cazorla to blaze over.
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“We have to be honest”.
