Charlie Nicholas praises Petr Cech after Arsenal progress in Champions League

Arsene Wenger described Arsenal’s 3-0 victory over Olympiakos as “the flawless performance”, as his side made the last 16 of the Champions League.

Giroud netted his first Arsenal treble in Wednesday’s 3-0 win at Olympiacos – a victory that saw Arsenal usurp their Greek opponents in Group F and secure qualification for the knockout stages of the competition. When you look at who we’ve lost in the last three weeks, we’ve lost Coquelin, Cazorla and Alexis among other long-term injuries, not many people gave us a chance.

“It was a flawless [hat-trick] because he scored a header, one with a good combination – what I must say was a great pass from [Joel] Campbell – and a penalty on top of that. We had to produce a flawless performance to win and we did just that”. “Competition makes players stronger and that is what happened”, Flamini added. When you do that, it creates a positive memory for the rest of the season.

Giroud’s 67th-minute penalty meant Arsenal could breathe easy as it meant Olympiakos needed three goals before the end to pip them to second place behind group winners Bayern Munich. “We had a flawless performance on the mental front and the tactical side”.

“It was a wonderful team performance, both offensively and defensively, and I haven’t said that many times about Arsenal this season”, he said.

“This is a team, and they showed it again”.

Arsenal entered Wednesday’s Champions League group finale with a simple task but one not simple to execute: Win at Olympiakos by two goals (or win by one while scoring at least four goals). You’ve seen teams struggle when they should go through and should be winning.

Olivier Giroud scored a hat trick as Arsenal clinched a spot in the Champions League round of 16.

“He found himself in uncomfortable positions but he showed skills and character – he had had to fight like mad”.

The Gunners could now face Real Madrid, Barcelona, Atletico Madrid, Wolfsburg or Zenit St Petersburg in the last-16 draw on Monday. “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”.

“It is my fourth year here and I’ve never played a quarter-final”. It doesn’t matter who we get, if we all contribute and play like that then we can beat anyone on our day.