Flamini says Giroud something something Walcott blah
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger hailed Olivier Giroud’s “perfect performance” as the French striker’s hat-trick completed a remarkable escape act in the Champions League on Wednesday.
Arsenal’s Olivier Giroud (left) celebrates with team-mate Theo Walcott after scoring a hat-trick against Olympiacos during the UEFA Champions League match at the Georgios Karaiskakis Stadium in Athens.
The Gunners went into the game knowing they needed to win by any scoreline apart from 1-0 or 2-1 to qualify for the knockout stages for a 16th consecutive year.
Since moving to Arsenal from Montpellier in 2012, Giroud has struggled to convince Arsenal supporters be belongs in the same class as some of his illustrious predecessors, one of whom, Thierry Henry, suggested in April Giroud was not the man to spearhead a successful assault on the Premier League title.
“You have to cope in our game, you are questioned and in his job, centre-forward, you are questioned even more”.
“I told you before the game it would be a great escape, and I must say I’m very proud of the team”, said Wenger. “We needed to be right on the mental side and right on the tactical side as well”. When you do that, it creates a positive memory for the rest of the season. “But he showed character again with the penalty”.
Olympiacos had begun to set siege to Petr Cech’s goal when they were undone as referee Nicola Rizzoli pointed to the penalty spot after Nacho Monreal’s shot was blocked by the arm of the diving Omar Elabdellaoui. “Nine times out of 10 you are out and we needed something special and we needed a complete team performance, and it was”. “I would like to pay tribute to those who were not here and those who stepped in”.
That sounds like Le Prof is confident that we will maintain the habit, and is trying to remind the players that we have usually had some wonderful results in away games in the past which have ensured we get through the Group Stages. He is a real handful when we need to play. “It’s nice to go through because we were not in a good position”.
“Whoever we end up playing, we must respect them”, said Walcott. “It’s the fourth year I have been here and we have never played in a quarter-final”.
Four minutes after the interval, Arsenal had the decisive margin and it owed much to a sensational piece of play from former Olympiakos loanee Campbell, as he reached a lofted pass from Ozil, before beating three defenders with an angled, no-look pass to Giroud.