A man down and still with over 30 minutes to get a goal back, Arsenal, and Laurent Koscielny in particular, were caught upfield to allow Dinamo a four-on-two break.
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The repercussions in Group F: Bayern Munich are a virtual shoo-in for first, leaving Arsenal, Dinamo and Olympiacos to battle for second. On Wednesday evening Arsenal were humiliated by Dinamo Zagreb, that’s the same Dinamo who had not won a group stage tie in 15 previous attempts before last night.
Özil received a rating of 6.4 from whoscored. “But I am confident we can put that right in the next five [Champions League group] games”. The World Cup victor maintained a passing accuracy of 78%.
Soudani missed a glorious chance to double the lead for the home side just after the resumption as he headed against the post from close range before stabbing the rebound wide. “I think a lot of deals have not happened because of the stalling and dithering”.
“I am enormously happy about the win over Arsenal, and congratulations to my players because they completed everything we agreed and that’s why they were rewarded”, he told Croatian news outlet Jutarni List.
“We were not at our best, but nor was the referee.The first yellow is Giroud’s fault because he protested, even if it was not a foul against him“.
The France striker, who had already collected an earlier caution for dissent, tripped Daniel Ivo Pinto, which gave Romanian referee Ovidiu Alin Hategan little option but to issue a second yellow card followed by a red.
Arsenal goalkeeper David Ospina, centre, concedes the 2nd goal…
Wenger, who made six changes to the side that beat Stoke on Saturday, said he accepted Giroud was wrong to talk back to the referee – but insisted that the French forward was still unlucky to be sent off.
However, Giroud was sent off for picking up a second yellow in their loss to Zagreb, which could make Wenger select Walcott over the Frenchman at Stamford Bridge.
The mini-revival was brought crashing down just before the hour mark, however, when Junior Fernandes rose highest to power a header past Ospina and leave the Premier League side teetering on the brink of a calamitous start to their European campaign. “On the corner we were guilty not to defend it well”, he said.
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“I didn’t find him stubborn when I was in the team, maybe because the team we had picked itself with the back five”.
