Petr Cech says that Arsenal can go into the final group game against Olympiacos in confident mood, knowing that qualification for the knock-out stages is in their own hands.
Having beaten Dinamo Zagreb last night, at the same time as Bayern beat the Greek side, the Gunners know the right scoreline will see them qualify. The Arsenal keeper is delighted to have made it to this point after making a donkey’s mickey of the first two games, and has urged his teammates to take the chance.
“We know if we create chances, play our game and put them under pressure, we have a chance to score our goals in the game and make the difference we need,” he said.
“So we can go in a confident mood because a few rounds ago we were almost out of the competition and now we have everything in our hands to progress. That is the situation, which is actually good for us.”
Arsenal have played in Olympiacos away three times before and lost all three, going down 2-1 in 2012; 3-1 in 2011; and 1-0 in 2009.
However, team selections for those games were based on the fact Arsene Wenger’s side had already qualified from their group, and the differing circumstances are something the Arsenal manager touched on after the game.
“Sometimes when we played at Olympiacos we had already qualified,” he said. “This time we go to Olympiacos heading to qualify.
“It will be tough but we have to believe we can do it and I believe we can do it.”
What do Arsenal need to do to qualify?
Any win other than 1-0 or 2-1 will do it, so:
Olympiacos 0-1 Arsenal: Out
Olympiacos 0-2 Arsenal: Qualify
Olympiacos 1-2 Arsenal: Out
Olympiacos 0-3 Arsenal: Qualify
Olympiacos 1-3 Arsenal: Qualify
Olympiacos 2-3 Arsenal: Qualify
Olympiacos 3-4 Arsenal: Qualify
Olympiacos 7-8 Arsenal: Qualify
Olympiacos 12-15 Arsenal: Qualify
Olympiacos 103-201 Arsenal: Qualify
Olympiacos 12,001,200 -18,401,351 Arsenal: Qualify
Olympiacos Fifty Bazillion Trillion Squillion – Fifty Bazillion Trillion Squillion and one Arsenal: Qualify
Simple!
It’ll be a tough match away, but it’s more than possible if we are concentrated.
let’s hope we carry the form through to Norwich and the next run of matches. Looking forward to seeing Walcott upfront again and Ramsey is very important to us.
If we are concentrated ? What are we , juice ?
Acid maybe. Yes, that’s it – Levulinic acid! (Flamini’s juice)
Concentrated per the dictionary – ‘having had water or other diluting agent removed or reduced, see Alexis Sanchez’.
ie at full strength, not wishy-washy, that’s what I want from them.
Considering UEFA’s PED policy, it’s obvious that most other teams are concentrated pretty hard.
8 assists in one game would be impressive, even by Özil’s standards.
Can you imagine the stats for our attackers if the last one were true. Cech would be furious though.
A squillion is surely the number of mistakes Sebastien Squillaci made in his time with us, which means it’s not a real number because no one can count that high.
How bout an Almunillion? Surely that’s a few zeroes more?
I just hate it when our players made comments like this…..the reverse would usually happen….
You do realise what they say has absolutely no bearing on events that are determined by what they do with their feet weeks from now?!
Physically no. Mentally yes.
Don’t be ridiculous. If course it does
That’s what my professor calls Logism. The idea that if it’s not logical, it doesn’t exist. The word is his own creation though. His point? There are very many illogical things, the very existence of human beings chief among them
Errrmmm… I think they got the point there blogs
If Ozil and Alexis are in the mood and in form come the Greece game, we’ll get what we need. Quality signings!
It’s back in our hands,
It’s back in our haaaands,
Now that you’ve all pissed yourselves,
It’s back in our hands.
Are you singing about Coq again?
Quick question, even though we have a better Goal difference and also they beat us 2-1. Why wouldn’t we go through with 2-1?
It’s Olympiakos we are playing next, not Zagreb, see that result.
Abisheg. Because loosing 2-1 will mean Olympiacos are better than us on head to head, making our superior goals difference redundant as it’s only useful after the two teams are tied on head to head.
Think of it this way and it doesn’t sound so daunting:
We are on a must win game against a mid-table opponent and suddenly we find ourselves 1-0 behind in the 1st minute.
How many times have we turned things around?
Olympiacos 40000000 Arsenal 40000001: Qualify
Doh, just realized we lost to them 3-2. I was referring to the Zagreb game. Anyways let’s beat those hooligans in a nice thumping way. COYG.
we can do it. olympiacos 0vs2 arsenal. coyg
Meanwhile did anyone else take note of Zagreb’s 18 year Old called Ciric? His confidence and movement with the ball??? Reminded me of a young Thomas Rosicky! Think we should get him….
might have already been doped. lets stay away.
Based on 8 minutes at the end of the game?!
I expect Michael Owen to not remember Coric in the first leg* but not you Blogs – tut tut! He played 20 minutes then and looked very good then as well. Please note I am not saying we should sign him up immediately and call him the next Rosicky/Ratikic/Nedved/Messi/God. However, I really hope we have tabs on him and are sending scouts or at least watching a few YouTube videos!!
*Owen babbled on about it being the first time we (UK public) had seen him.
Sign him up then!
He is actually very talented. We probably are looking at him.
Oh and its Coric.
Pjaca is also another one of their starlets, he was pretty much involved in every one of their attacks yesterday. I think it was his shot that hit the stantion?
Either way, Zagreb have a number of young players that are worth keeping an eye on.
Yep…still pisses me off we let spuds get to Modric despite scouting him first.
If there’s one thing i admire about our scouting team is the ability to spot 90 percent of these players before the big clubs swoop on them i.e Modric, pato, Ribery, Di maria, Ronaldinho(before he went to psg), etc.
One day, we’ll get a messi type…hopefully.
Thanks for the correction Trez…..
Can’t believe you didn’t mention
Olympiakos 40,000 – 40,000 + 1 Arsenal
If Suarez had had a release clause of 40,000 that would have been the deal of the millennium.
Donkey’s mickey?
Ya I was wondering the same. Whats a donkey’s mickey Arseblog?
You probably don’t want to know.
We certainly have the ability to go there and win by two, but really need to keep the players available now (esp Ramsey) healthy and hopefully get Ox back too to give us another option against a likely packed back defense. A few times recently I remember us in the 2nd leg of the knockout stages getting two at Monaco, two at Bayern, three at home vs AC Milan (unfortunately we needed one more in each case) so we can do it, but it is a tough venue to play at with so much on the line. Really will be… Read more »
It’ll be one of the greatest Champions League recoveries in history. Only one other team has ever qualified from the group stages after having just three points from their first four matches.
Its an issue of application. Many point out our lack of transfer activity and ‘squad depth’ I understand the concern bc of our unusually high injury record but as Ian Wright mentioned recently, you can’t buy a bunch of players more bc we already have a deep squad and what happens when your injured players get back in? You have no elasticity to add and as we have seen it has been difficult to get rid of surplus players (Park, Chamakh, Bentnder took a while to get them off the books) I think additions to the squad are tricky for… Read more »
What happens if we score over 9000?
In 90 minutes:
100 goals a minute
1 goal every 0.6 seconds
Doable. ?
Considering that we have coq injured,
Ramsey is not match fit,
Walcott might or might not play,
Giroud occasionally misses key chances,
Bellerin just back from injury,
Sanchez in need of a rest
We should be able to win 3-0
That’s right.
Olympiacos 40 million arsenal 40 million and 1
Lols!