After series of poor runs in the English Premiership, Arsenal FC reached the knockout stage (Round of 16) of the European Champions League (UCL) for the 15th year running by beating Borussia Dortmund 2-0 on Wednesday at the Emirates.
And with the team’s next match against Galatasaray on December 9 in Turkey, players, followers and fans of the team are of the view that the team can go beyond the next stage if it can repeat the brilliant performance as exhibited against Dortmund at the Emirates.
Arsenal’s attacking midfielder, Santi Cazorla, wants the players to continue to play the same way they did against Dortmund.
He said: “We pressed high, had a good spirit and played very well. We need to continue playing the same and now focus on the league again.
“When you finish first, you can play against another team – not FC Barcelona, not Real Madrid, not PSG.
“It is difficult because we need Dortmund to lose or draw at home and for us to win at Galatasaray, but we want to win that last game.
“Alexis Sánchez is very important for us. He is in a good moment for the team and I hope he continues to play the same. He is a very important player for Arsenal.”
Manager, Arsene Wenger, also feels the same. He said: “Overall, it was a committed game. Maybe we were defensively better against Dortmund.
“We are a team that likes to go forward – sometimes we feel we must dominate the game and we may forget to take precautions to defend. We did that better last Wednesday.
”When you work in a football club, you realise it’s not easy to be consistent; so I’m very proud of the qualification record. I think also that the club deserves a lot of credit. It’s not enough; we want more than that.”
According to Wenger, what the most important thing is that the club is united. He acknowledged the team’s top-quality attitude, saying: “We have shown that, after the disappointment of upper Saturday. What is important is what we do inside the club.
“From now till February, we must improve as a team… We will have all our players back for the next round. If we look around Europe to see who has qualified, there are many top teams.”
Unfortunately, injuries to Yaya Sanogo and Mikel Arteta tainted the victory for Wenger, as his players’ injuries continue.
In Group A, Athletico Madrid’s 4-0 bashing of Olympiakos makes the Italian club to remain on the top with 12 points, closely followed by Juventus with nine points after it ran home with a 2-0 away victory over Malmo FF.
In Group B, Real Madrid maintained its winning streak to take the tally to 15 points from five matches after it pipped FC Basel 1-0 and confirmed Basel in a distant second position with six points from the same number of matches.
Bayern Leverkusen still tops Group C with nine points despite its 0-1 loss to AS Monaco’s at home. The victory gave Monaco a chance to fight for the top spot, as it is closely on the heels of Leverkusen with eight points from the same number of matches.
Bayern Munchen is leading Group E with 12 points, while battle for the second slot will be keenly contested by the remaining three teams – AS Roma, CSKA and Manchester City. The three teams are tied with five points each.
In Group F, battle for the eventual leaders lies between Paris Saint-Germain (PSG) and FC Barcelona, as both teams are now 13 and 12 points on the table.
Current English Premiership leader, Chelsea, is comfortable of topping Group G after the 5-0 victory over Schalke, as Sporting is second on the group with seven points, and victory in the last group match will only give it 10 points and Chelsea will end up with 11 points, even if it loses the last group match.
In Group H, FC Porto is on the driver’s seat with 13 points, followed by Shaktar Doneskt with eight points from the same number of matches.