Arsene Wenger hailed Arsenal’s “perfect” Champions League victory as one of his greatest ever European nights.
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The Gunners needed to win by two goals or a scoreline of 3-2 or better to join Bayern Munich in the Round of 16 and few gave them hope of success at the intimidating Karaiskakis Stadium.
“He deserves the credit and I think he gets it. I have not seen it anywhere or from anyone that he is not a top goalscorer”.
“It is a incredible achievement for us”.
“We are a real team”. “We made it so hard for ourselves, no-one really gave us any chance of getting through but the attitude in that dressing room was fantastic”.
They will now look ahead to the draw for the last 16 next Monday, when they could be drawn against Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Wolfsburg or Zenit St Petersburg.
“It’s the fourth year I have been at Arsenal and I have never played in a quarter-final”. He’s in possession of the shirt and he has the chance to prove people wrong.
“It was a flawless performance because he scored a header, one with a good combination thanks to a good pass by Campbell, and also a penalty on top of that”, the boss explained.
Theo Walcott has urged Arsenal to heed the lessons from the lack of respect they showed Monaco last season following their great escape to reach the Champions League knockout stages.
“It was a good performance against Olympiakos and we showed great team spirit”.
Come the hour come the man and this time it was often-derided Olivier Giroud who did the job with a hat-trick.
Joel Campbell – deputizing in Athens for more familiar faces such as Santi Cazorla and Alexis Sánchez, both of whom were injured – in particular was excellent, terrorizing the Olympiacos defence from the off. How he needed them. Arsene Wenger’s charges needed to win by a two-goal margin, or 3-2 or better, to advance in the UEFA showpiece.
Wenger was delighted by Wednesday’s efficiency and praised his group’s potential to tug of an emphatic turnaround regardless of accidents to a number of gamers.
“The Champions League is where we want to be and all the guys worked tremendously hard to make this happen”.
Chelsea’s place in the last-16 had been in doubt going into the final group game against Porto.
The eight group winners will be drawn against the eight runners-up, although teams from the same country can not play each other.
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Also, Roma’s 0-0 draw against BATE Borisov was just enough to allow the Italian club to edge Bayer Leverkusen for second place in its group.
