Dinamo Zagreb swept to a surprising 2-1 victory over 10-man Arsenal in the Champions League today as the Londoners’ made a dismal start to their campaign in Group F. “We were not at our best but nor was the referee”.
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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says Aaron Ramsey and Hector Bellerin will face Chelsea this weekend but Per Mertesacker could again miss out.
No. Was it Olivier Giroud’s stupid fouls to get himself sent off? “We’ve had setbacks before and we’ve managed to bounce back from them“, the attacker told the official Arsenal website.
It seemed as if the player was frustratingly lashing out last night given these unwanted criticisms on his part but our Arsenal contingent have no sympathy with him given the fact he left his team-mates in a awful situation and even before his red card, the Gunners weren’t playing effectively anyway.
The Frenchman was booked for dissent after 26 minutes and received a second yellow card just 14 minutes later for a foul on Ivo Pinto. It was accidental completely, but it happened. “I don’t understand the referee”, the 65-year-old said.
Keane believes Giroud’s dismissal for a second bookable offence was a costly error from the referee but he maintains Dinamo’s second goal could have been prevented. We will get back to the training ground at four or five o’clock in the morning.
“I personally don’t believe that the players who came in had a bad game“. Arsenal were handed a lifeline with 11 minutes remaining when substitute Walcott, who scored hat-trick for England in the Maksimir Stadium in 2008, slid the ball past Dinamo stopper Eduardo Carvalho.
Wenger, however, accepted Arsenal were overall well below the required performance.
Zagreb put the final nail in the coffin on 58 minutes when Fernandes doubled the home sides league. We are good enough to defend corners like that, well…
It has been a 16-year wait, but it was worth it in the end as Dinamo Zagreb celebrated their first UEFA Champions League group win since 29 September 1999.
“I have to analyse that well”.
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“We realised it was very important to close the middle of the field, to stop the fast passes, and we succeeded in doing that”, he added. “I focus more on us performing well, with full power”.
