Ramsey revels in Arsenal win

Borussia Dortmund 0 Arsenal 1

The Gunners became the first English side to win in the Westfalenstadion after the Wales international continued his run of form with the only goal in the 62nd minute.

“It was a great achievement from the lads,” Ramsey said.

“They got to the final last year and were unlucky and they are a strong team so we had to do our defensive work.

“We were very good defensively even thought we didn’t have any shots in the first half and they had a few, even if it was from distance.

“We kept our shape really well, we were patient and it was a proper away performance from the lads and we got them on the counter-attack.”

On his own goalscoring run after an 11th goal of the season Ramsey added: “I am enjoying myself at the moment and everything seems to be going in.

“I’m delighted with the way I’m playing and the goals I’m scoring.”

Unsurprisingly, manager Arsene Wenger was impressed with a mature display from his side.

“We were under consistent pressure from the first to the last minute and we didn’t make mistakes,” he said.

“It was a very tight game, very difficult, but we were united and had a compact block which didn’t give them room to create chances.

“We knew at half-time it was a question of keeping our team focus without making a mistake and letting our technical superiority come in at some stage of the game.

“We came into the game and suddenly we looked like we could score.

“I was concerned it was a long time to go when we scored but after that we created chances and could’ve scored a second goal and they (Dortmund) tired a little bit as well.

“We looked stable defensively. We were under pressure but we had a good mixture of technical awareness and attitude. Overall it was a very mature performance.”

On Ramsey he added: “A year ago I thought it would be difficult for him to score but he is a young player and confident and has improved tremendously — which is a huge credit to him.”

It may not have been the flowing display which Wenger would have preferred — but the Premier League leaders once again answered questions with a display of real character to hand a rare defeat to last season’s beaten finalists.

With Napoli beating Marseille, Arsenal still have work to do to secure safe passage through to the knockout stages, but will have gained more belief they can last the distance this season.

Dortmund, though, dominated the first half and were left counting the cost of not making the most of that spell in control, where the English side could not muster any attack of note and Henrikh Mkhitaryan missed a great chance for Dortmund when he shot wide from the edge of the penalty area after Arsenal were carved open down the right.

Gunners goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny saved well from Jakub Blaszczykowski following the restart, before Ramsey secured what proved to be the winner just after the hour for his 11th goal of the season.

Dortmund went close to an opening goal on 16 minutes when Neven Subotic volleyed a free-kick from Reus just wide of the far post.

Sven Bender capitalised on a mix-up between Arteta and Laurent Koscielny to pounce on a loose ball and charge forward — but Mertesacker was on hand again to make a huge tackle on the edge of the Arsenal penalty area.

Dortmund should have been ahead on 38 minutes when Dutch referee Bjorn Kuipers played a good advantage following a foul on the break.

Blaszczykowski fed Mkhitaryan at the edge of the penalty area — only for the Armenia striker to stab the ball horribly wide as stranded goalkeeper Szczesny looked on.

The Germans pressed again at the start of the second half, with Arsenal once more lacking invention going forward.

But, totally against the run of play, Arsenal found themselves ahead on 62 minutes. Mesut Ozil, who had done little all night, collected the ball on the edge of the Dortmund area and clipped a lovely cross over for Giroud.

The France forward showed great strength to cushion a header down, and Ramsey bundled the ball past Roman Weidenfeller.

The Wales midfielder almost immediately doubled the lead when ghosting in at the far post, but this time the German keeper stood up to make a fine stop.

In an incredible spell of chances, Arsenal then had a shot cleared off the line by Nuri Sahin before Mertesacker was within inches of connecting with a diving header, then his backward header looped onto the top of the net.

In the dying moments, Lewandowski headed over and then appealed for a penalty after tumbling in a challenge with Mertesacker, but the referee was having none of it as Arsenal closed out a well-earned victory.

BORUSSIA DORTMUND: Weidenfeller, Grosskreutz, Papastathopoulos, Subotic, Schmelzer, Sahin, Bender (Hofmann 75), Blaszczykowski (Aubameyang 74), Mkhitaryan, Reus (Schieber 86), Lewandowski.

ARSENAL: Szczesny, Sagna, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Gibbs, Ramsey, Arteta, Cazorla (Monreal 75), Ozil, Rosicky (Vermaelen 90), Giroud (Bendtner 90).

Referee: Bjorn Kuipers (Holland).