Arsenal victory keeps their Champions League hopes

Alexis Sanchez scored twice and Mesut Ozil headed the other goal as never-say-die Arsenal beat Dinamo Zagreb 3-0 on Tuesday and kept alive their hopes of reaching the Champions League last 16 for a 16th straight season.

They need to win their final group game away to Olympiakos by a margin of two goals, or if they score three, then just a one goal advantage would be sufficient.

Arsene Wenger insists his Arsenal side would take the Europa League seriously if they drop out of the Champions League. “We needed to do the job and Bayern needed to do the job – we’ve both done it well”. “It has been hard for us due to our results and our performances but there is still a chance for us and we want to take it seriously”.

With Arsenal losing three of their first four group games, all the pressure was on Wenger and his side going into the game and they started nervously with the visitors forcing a couple of early corners.

“How big the chance to qualify is I don’t know but I believe we can do it”.

Arsenal were victorious in their last home game in the competition (2-0 v Bayern Munich) but have not won consecutive Champions League games at the Emirates since 2012.

The Gunners recorded a 3-0 victory over Dinamo Zagreb last night, while Bayern Munich defeated Olympiakos 4-0 at the Allianz Arena.

After a pleasing performance, Wenger concluded: “Once we scored the first goal you could see the chances were coming”. Yeah, Leverkusen needed to win this game.

The following day, he said, UEFA testers visited the club’s training ground for the first time he could remember in his 19 years as Arsenal manager.

Wenger has been outspoken against doping and questioned why UEFA rulings mean there is no way of disqualifying a team from continental competition unless more than two players fail a test.

Wenger said: “It’s a surprising rule”.

Dinamo Zagreb coach Zoran Mamic is backing Arsenal to produce the result they need in the Greek capital.

The second came from Alexis with 20 minutes to go, meeting Joel Campbell’s defense-splitting pass and rounding goalkeeper Eduardo to ensure a comfortable conclusion for the hosts. They were good on the counter-attack. “They have much more quality than Olympiakos in my opinion”.