Olivier Giroud says that beating Bayern Munich in the group stages can give Arsenal confidence ahead of tomorrow night’s clash with Barcelona.
The Gunners beat the former European champions 2-0, with Giroud scoring the first goal, and while he accepts Arsenal are the underdogs against Luis Enrique’s side, he says the players will try and win the game.
“We are confident,” he said. “We did well against Munich and showed that we can win against the biggest sides.
“Obviously they are favourites, its the Champion league against Barcelona but we have good quality this year, even if we had a lot of injuries, but we did well during a tough moment in the Autumn and we have our players back, so we are very happy with that.
“For example Danny made the difference against Leicester, and I was very pleased for him.
“We will need everybody, we have a strong squad and that is why we can play in every competition.”
The French international spoke about the desire to stay in all the competitions, both domestically and in Europe.
“We want to play in every competition and we want to keep the FA Cup for us, a record of winning three times in a row,” he continued.
“For the title race, we are still in a strong position and we want to keep it up but we have big games to come so we will have time to focus on the Premier League.
“The Champions league is always the big time for players, especially against Barcelona so we will enjoy it and give the maximum to give pleasure to our fans and take a lot of pleasure on the pitch.
“Why not win this game?! We have the quality for that.”
Winning! Perfectly philosophically French. Why not eh?
Giroud, let’s show the doubters wrong. You’re a big time player who comes up with the goals (or assists). Either nodding down crosses on attack or nodding out crosses in defense, giroud is vital to our overall play (and handsomeness).
HFB’s starting then. Let’s have it!
Guaranteed starters
Cech
Bellerin Per Koscielny Monreal
Coquelin Ramsey
Ozil Alexis
One open slot on RW
Does he start with Walcott? Ox? welbeck?
Either Walcott or Welbeck on the right, and Giroud up front. Both have good pace and good finish. Walcott’s slightly better going forward, Welbeck’s slightly better tracking back.
I would opt for welbz. Higher work rate, maybe not as clinical but there’s a higher chance that he’s productive in a fast paced high energy champions league game
We are SEXIER than Barcelona!
Anyone’s sexier than Suarez
Haha that got me creasing.
He’s right. We did it against bayern twice and real Madrid also against ac Milan. If we we manage even a draw at home, we have a shot. But again in these competitions, first leg at home, we tend to take sever
al goals and then go out on goal difference despite winning away
I think the game plan we had against Man City is something we should try against Barce.
We sat back and hit them on the counter attack. I just hope Flamini can be disciplined enough to just defend when he needs.
The wingers will need to do their defensive work too as Barce’s full back break with great speed to support their forwards.
Can’t wait for the game!
I am more interested in the ManU game.
I wish they play a normal game against Barcelona and not over do it because we get all worn out before travelling to Old trafford .
I rather win at old Trafford
Completely agree with this. Hypothetically, even if we do somehow beat Barca over two legs, it is extremely unlikely we’ll win the CL. And even if we were to claim another few big scalps (like Bayern or Real) and make it to the semi final or even the final, if that was at the cost of winning the Premier League, that would be a huge disappointment.
We play at Old Toilet with two full days more rest than Man Uropa, who have to play away in Denmark on Thursday night. We’re not going to be worn out, Man Uropa are. We have the squad and the fitness to give 100% in both matches.
Man Ure are playing the Danes at home.
I also think they’ll be more rested after playing Midtjyland than us playing barça, who’ll run us ragged with passing and pace.
But, they might put in more effort in Europa since that’s the only trophy they can redeem their season with.
I tend to agree, would love to see us batter manure!! However, we are being written off by the bookies, pundits and haters for this match against Barcelona which could work in our favour being that we seem to like being the underdog!
It’s going to be an epic match! They have the best attacking trio in recent memory but we have a legendary goalkeeper + a back four that has the second best record in the world’s most competitive league. We will also have a couple of game-changers on attack tomorrow (my money is on Alexis scoring against his former club). Luis Enrique himself is excited about this game and you can’t blame him! It’ll be tough to find another match with this level of attacking quality, playing positive football. Both teams play for the love of the beautiful game and we,… Read more »
Start walcott as CF and play similarly to the Bayern home match. Barca won’t like the pace on counter attacks.
I wonder how those cheats would fair in the premier league as opposed to the soft league they are in? I doubt they would do as well in Europe due to the gruelling nature of the premier league, same goes for Bayern!!!
Bayern won their match last weekend with 81% possession and 38 attempts at goal. Shows you how competitive the Bundesliga is, that something like that can happen. They weren’t even playing the last place team, FFS!
Wenger: “Honestly, of course the difficulty of the task is completely different but it is more difficult to prepare against Hull than Barcelona,” he said. “Against Barcelona everyone is naturally focused. It is more to create belief and confidence, because Barcelona are super-favourites in this game. “Against Hull it is more to raise the urgency level and convince everybody that it is a very difficult game.” What about tactics you stupid fucking clown? Seriously, he’s fucking hopeless. He sends them out there completely underprepared. No wonder our CL record is so pathetic. Even if Arsenal got a lucky win, it’ll… Read more »
It’s a bit much to call Wenger a “stupid fucking clown” in all honesty. Footballers aren’t robots, so much of top level sport is psychological. You can argue about his approach to that, fine. But it is part of his job description as a manager. And as for tactics, no-one has figured out how to stop Barca’s attack. If we lose it won’t be because Wenger’s “fucking hopeless”. In the past, they’ve usually had a better team than us and tomorrow is no exception. If you can show me a fool proof way to stop Barcelona over potentially 210 minutes… Read more »
Are you alright Pete?
Nope lol
I can kinda see what Wenger is saying about Barcelona as opposed to hull, but it does stick in ones craw when we don’t beat the likes of hull!!! But it is true that you get more motivated by playing some teams than others but a professional football player needs to be professional and batter both hull and Barcelona!!!
The Hull macth was played with fringe players who usually don’t play too much together. It isn’t really comparable to a CL match played with the best 11
I think Giroud could really make the difference tomorrow on the night. He’s a different presence this season in positive way, and I think he will like playing against a team with such a high defensive line.