Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud (left) celebrates with team-mate Theo Walcott after scoring a hat-trick against Olympiacos during the UEFA Champions League match at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Athens.
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“I must say I’m very proud of the team as we had to be right on the mental and tactical side”.
I think [Giroud is a top striker in world football] because he plays for one of the best clubs in Europe and he scores goals.
And asked whether the sordid allegations made Benzema less appealing as a transfer target, Wenger added: “We just said that Olivier Giroud is a great striker, so behind that we can not buy Karim Benzema!”.
Hopefully if we can get players back fit as well, the squad will be even stronger than it is now.
“When you can deliver something special, you can create something special for the rest of the season”.
Arsenal’s brush with Champions League brinksmanship saw them crash out to a vastly inferior Monaco side last season – this time they embraced the pressure against Olympiakos and ensured a run that has seen the Gunners reach the last 16 every year since 2000 was not broken.
Arsenal’s qualification completed a remarkable turnaround after they lost three of their first four games of the campaign and needed to win by any result other than 1-0 or 2-1 in their decisive group clash to finish second behind table toppers Bayern Munich.
“We have escaped and maybe it’s a lucky year for us in the Champions League”. We knew we had to push for the third goal because it’s very risky at 2-0, and we had the ideal game. “If we get the likes of Wolfsburg it will be a completely different ball game because they had a great result against Manchester United”.
“We had a ideal performance”.
The victory came despite Arsenal having seven first-team regulars sidelined through injury, although Walcott was starting his first game since recovering from a calf problem. “I think it is a legal case and as long as it has not been judged, you have to wait for the judgement”, he said.
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“You’ve seen teams struggle when they should be going through and winning. We know we can do it so the best way to do it is with a top-quality performance and that is what we want to focus on”. “It’s nice to go through the group stage because we weren’t in a good position and finally we’ve done it. We’re pleased for the fans and we’re relieved tonight”, said Giroud.
