Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud says that he and his teammates have the belief that they can still qualify for the knockout stages of the UEFA Champions League.
The Gunners either need to beat Olympiacos 2-0 or by any scoreline in which they score three or more goals if they want to progress from Group F. If Arsenal fail to win, they’ll join fellow Premier League teams Liverpool, Manchester United and local rivals Tottenham Hotspur in the Europa League. That quadrant of teams could also be joined by Chelsea, depending on how results in Group G pan out.
Winning by such a margin in Greece will not be easy, but Arsenal’s French striker says that the Gunners are more than capable of getting the result they need.
As reported by John Cross of the Mirror, Giroud said that he believes they can do it.
Of course, we believe we can make it! If not, the club would have sent the youth team! We were not far from making it when we needed a similar result in Munich in 2013 and at Monaco last year. It was even more difficult at Monaco (than Olympiacos). So we have good chances.
When asked how it would feel if Arsenal did not qualify, Giroud said it would be disappointing and that the team would look back at the results they had early on.
Will it be a massive fail if we don’t make it? Massive, no. But this group was within our reach and we put ourselves in a difficult position while losing our two first games. Now, we have the opportunity to show our mental strength. This is a game where we will have to be strong in our head. We have to be ready mentally.
The 29-year-old striker also said that the Gunners won’t use the atmosphere in Greece or the club’s current injury problems as excuses if they fail.
We’ll have to leave aside the atmosphere because it’s gonna be a very hot game. We need to be at 100%. In this kind of game, 95% won’t be enough.
That’s sure, we have a lot of injuries. Probably 40% of our squad is out. But we have a squad with quality and deeper than the previous seasons. The guys who replaced injured players last week-end against Sunderland did their job, like Joel [Campbell]. We know we have enough quality to go and win there.
Arsenal can use recent history and take some encouragement that Olympiacos aren’t immune to a hammering a home. Earlier in the campaign, Bayern Munich travelled to Greece and won 3-0, thanks mainly to two goals from Thomas Muller.
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