Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger praises Olivier Giroud’s positive mentality

France striker Giroud’s first treble for the club earned the convincing win over Olympiacos required to snatch second place in Group F and seal qualification to the knockout stage for a 16th successive year.

“It was a ideal 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”.

“It will make us stronger and strengthen the belief of the squad”, he said.

On Wednesday night Arsenal beat Olympiakos and clinched the second spot in the pool’s group behind Bayern Munich, advancing to the last 16 of the Champions League.

Arsenal needed to win by two clear goals in Greece following a stuttering campaign which saw them lose their opening two games against Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiakos.

“We have escaped and maybe it’s a lucky year for us in the Champions League”. “From the first to the last minute we were a good team and I’m very proud of them”.

“In the past when there was a tight game, they’d always crumble.In the last two years, we’ve seen a different Arsenal”.

“If you look at the players who are out and the performance we produced, it was outstanding”. We kept trying to create chances.

Olivier Giroud has been turned into one of Europe’s top strikers – after losing his place in the Arsenal team.

Giroud became the seventh Arsenal player to reach double figures for goals in the Champions League.

Olivier Giroud scored a hat trick as Arsenal advanced with a 3-0 win over Olympiakos, overturning an advantage held by the Greeks ahead of the final match.

“It looks like Leicester is producing the consistency and quality, and the number of goals they score indicates to you, yes, they will remain up there and you have to consider them now as fighting for the Premier League”. Being in the Euros is going to be a great moment for me and the Welsh team so we are looking forward to that and obviously being in the Champions League knock-out stages is a great achievement so I’m looking forward to both.

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.