Arsenal confidence spreading through entire squad – Walcott
Arsenal knew they would get their “massive” win in Greece if they could impose their brand of football on the game, Petr Cech has said the club sealed their last-16 place in the Champions League with a 3-0 win over Olympiakos Piraeus on Wednesday.
“It’s a fantastic achievement for us because we have lost players”.
Asked if there was any team that Arsenal wanted to avoid, Walcott said: “I’m sure none of them would like to play us after that result”.
“When you do that it creates a positive memory for rest of the season”.
Enduring a hard season domestically, Chelsea progressed to the last 16 as Group G winners with a 2-0 win at home to Jose Mourinho’s old side Porto as Ivan Marcano’s early own goal put them ahead and Willian scored in the second half.
“In the past when there was a tight game, they’d always crumble.In the last two years, we’ve seen a different Arsenal”.
“Nine times out of 10 you are out (after such a poor start)”.
Those two giants aside, Arsenal could face a third La Liga side in Atletico Madrid, Manchester United’s conquerors of Tuesday night, Wolfsburg, or Zenit Saint Petersburg, who took advantage of a weak group to ease through at the expense of Gary Neville’s Valencia.
Midway through the second period, Omar Elabdellaoui was perhaps harshly penalised for handling Nacho Monreal’s shot, and Giroud coolly converted the spot-kick for his first Arsenal hat-trick in his three and half years at the club. We are really pleased to go through.
Arsenal still have seven first-team players out injured but winning in such a convincing fashion without them gave Wenger extra satisfaction on what he admitted was a memorable night.
“To be honest, I just tried to play well and I have confidence so it was an opportunity for myself tonight”, Giroud said on the club’s official website. Not many people gave us a chance. Wednesday was one of his best performances on all fronts, I must say.
Giroud duly despatched the resulting penalty to complete his hat-trick and send Arsenal into Monday’s draw for the first knock-out stage as they saw out the remainder of the contest with minimal fuss. “They didn’t want to go to the Europa League and especially after the last defeat at home, a second successive defeat would have been an attack to their pride”. The target is maybe to reach the quarter-finals, it’s my fourth year here and I’ve never played a quarter-final so hopefully.