Hector Bellerin has expressed his confidence that Arsenal can qualify for the group stages in the Champions League with a win against Olympiacos, as quoted by Arsenal’s official website.
The Gunners started their Champions League campaign on a poor note with two losses but fought back with 2 wins in their next 3 games and need to overcome to Olympiacos by a margin of two goals or win by scoring four or more if they are to qualify for the next stage.
The young Spaniard feels the North London club can overcome their Greek rivals if they control the possession. Speaking to Arsenal Player, Bellerin said:
We’ve proved already that we’re a team who are very dangerous when we have the ball. We need to try to do that at Olympiacos by having possession and creating chances.
I’m sure that the ball is going to go in and that we’re going to go home with a win. That’s very important, that the team is in the mood for it and that the team wants to get out of the group stages. We know that, as the players who represent Arsenal Football Club, we need to be up for the job.
It has been a tough Champions League campaign for Arsenal so far, but all is not lost yet as they have a good chance of redeeming themselves when they face in-form Olympiacos on Wednesday night in Greece. The Gunners have been mediocre since the start of November and are struggling to put together a string of good performances aided by ever-present injury problems.
On paper, it does look pretty simple as the Gunners have enough fire power to put 4 or more goals past their Greek rivals, but looking at Olympiacos’s form this season it seems a pretty humongous target to achieve. The Red-Whites are yet to lose a game in their League campaign and have only been downed by Bayern in all competitions this season.
The Emirates club have been up and down for the past month or so giving up leads, conceding cheap goals while also putting goals past their own keeper and if they repeat any of these mistakes in Greece they can adieu goodbye to the Champions League. Coming to the positives, despite injuries to several key players Arsenal do have a strong enough side to maintain Wenger’s illustrious record and it all depends on how much they want this win.
With Walcott back, Wenger has a decision on his hands on where to start him and my preference would be to start him wide alongside Giroud. The target is clear that we need goals and there’s no better option than to play all your goalscorers from the start and see who can find themselves on the receiving end of Ozil wizardry. We have been scoring goals in batches, so the players should be patient and keep up their focus until the final moments of the game. COYG!
Can Arsenal maintain Wenger’s illustrious record? What do you think guys?
