Olivier Giroud has explained that he was thoroughly pleased with Arsenal’s display in the 3-0 win over Olympiacos last night, despite his side missing several key players.
The Gunners, who were without the services of several first team players such as such as Alexis Sanchez, Santi Cazorla, Francis Coquelin, Mikel Arteta, Jack Wilshere and Danny Welbeck, needed to win by two goals or more in Greece to keep their Champions League hopes alive.
And Giroud, whose hat-trick helped Arsenal to reach the knockout rounds of the competition, admitted it was not an easy task for his side to come away with the result at Olympiacos.
“I think we missed a lot of players but this year [with] the new squad and [in] the years before, there has been quality”, the Frenchman told Arsenal’s official site.
“It [was] a good opportunity. We defended well and we played well. We tried to play our game in between the lines and we created chances to score, so we are pleased as it was not so easy and we were in a difficult position.”
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Arsenal pipped Olympiacos to second spot in Group F with nine points, owing to their better head-to-head results against the Greek giants.
Olympiacos, who will now play in the Europa League, defeated Arsenal 3-2 in the corresponding fixture at the Emirates Stadium in September.
