Arsene Wenger heaped praise on Arsenal’s flawless performance as they completed the great escape to make it out of the Champions League group stage on Wednesday.
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France’s striker Olivier Giroud produced a scintillating performance by netting a hat-trick as Arsenal overcame Olympiakos 3-0 in their Group F clash. “In the last few weeks, we’ve lost so many players – (Alexis)Sanchez, (Santi) Cazorla among others”, said the Frenchman. “We had the chance to prove to everyone we have the qualities of being a top team in the Champions League”, Flamini added.
Olivier Giroud has explained that he was thoroughly pleased with Arsenal’s display in the 3-0 win over Olympiacos last night, despite his side missing several key players.
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.
After losses to Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiakos in their opening two group stage matches and with a double header against Bayern Munich on the horizon, Arsenal looked destined to crash out of the competition at the first hurdle.
“Maybe it is a lucky year for us in the Champions League, you never know”.
“We were in escape mode before the game and we needed something special”.
“Nine times out of 10 in that position, you are out of the group”.
Zenit St Petersburg, managed by former Chelsea and Tottenham boss Andre Villas-Boas, Manchester United’s conquerors Wolfsburg or the Spanish trio of Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid are the the quintet of clubs who could meet Wenger’s men in the first knock-out stage.
‘He showed his importance to the team and capped it with great composure to score the penalty.
Hat-trick hero Giroud said: “It’s fantastic for me and the team”.
The injury-hit Gunners were boosted by the return of Theo Walcott, who made his first start since suffering a calf injury in late October, but it took them a while to get into the contest in a hostile atmosphere at the Karaiskakis stadium. So come January, we will see how it goes.
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“We were so much out of it that I put all my focus on staying in”. It doesn’t matter who we get, if we all contribute and play like that then we can beat anyone on our day.
