Olivier Giroud hat-trick on cue to make it sweet 16 for Arsene Wenger
Wenger had guided the Gunners through the group games of the Champions League for 15 seasons in succession and that remarkable record was threatened last night as they needed to win by two clear goals to avoid an early exit.
It promised to be a tense and nervous occasion, but Arsenal reached the last 16 yet again with something to spare as Giroud destroyed Olympiakos, with valuable assistance from Joel Campbell, who played for the Greek side last season.
Now Wenger’s next European challenge is to negotiate the first hurdle of the knock-out stage after going out at that stage in the last five years, but they will be hugely encouraged by this result.
They progressed even though the Olympiakos omens were not encouraging for a team beaten on their three previous visits to a ground with a notoriously intimidating atmosphere.
Those previous matches at the Karaiskakis Stadium were relatively meaningless because Arsenal had already qualified for the knock-out stage, but this was different.
This time it truly mattered and they responded superbly to the pressure of knowing that Wenger’s chances of extending his remarkable run of Champions League progress were on a knife edge.
Even he accepted that this qualification represents the greatest escape act of his time at Arsenal, but he was anxious before the start and it was reflected in the team he sent out as he gambled with a half-fit Theo Walcott in his starting line-up.
Wenger was proved right when he predicted that Walcott would not be able to survive for the full 90 minutes. “It’s a bit risky, but we need to score goals,” he said.
And that’s exactly what they did via the finishing of Giroud.
It was equally essential, however, that they stayed tight in defence as they failed to do in the first meeting between the teams at the Emirates when Wenger paid a high price for replacing keeper Petr Cech with David Ospina.
On that occasion, Olympiakos lived up to their reputation as a team that prefers to sit back and hit teams on the break, but an attacking intent was soon apparent last night.
Arsenal were on the back foot in the opening stages and were grateful that Italian Nicola Rizzoli justified his reputation as one of the world’s best referees inside the first ten minutes.
Rizzoli was perfectly placed to decided that dangerman Kostas Fortounis, scorer of ten goals since returning from an unproductive stay at Kaiserslautern, had dived when he went down inside the area.
Nevertheless, it was worrying start for Arsenal as Felipe Pardo’s trickery posed problems for Nacho Monreal down Arsenal’s left flank and created a 20th minute opening for Seba, whose shot drifted wide.
Yet Arsenal went desperately close to a breakthrough with their first attack of the half in the 25th minute - and it involved Campbell, the forward who scored 11 goals while on loan at Olympiakos last season.
This time, Campbell was the creative spark as he surged down the right wing before pulling the ball back to Mathieu Flamini, whose shot was diverted onto the bar as Luka Milivojevic lunged in.
Their next attack four minutes later did produce the opening goal, though. Mesut Ozil’s superb pass found Aaron Ramsey, whose left-wing cross was behind Giroud, but the striker still generated enough power with his header to beat Roberto for his third goal in four Champions League games this season.
The keeper should have done better and his uncertainty quickly spread through the rest of a team that had failed to build on their initial promise and could have gone further behind when Walcott powered a shot narrowly wide in the 39th minute.
Arsenal had to survive just one more scare before the interval and, inevitably, Colombian winger Pardo was the player responsible his cross was almost sliced past Cech by Laurent Koscielny in the 40th minute.
It was an immensely satisfying 45 minutes for Arsenal as they quietened the hostile Greek fans in a crowd of 33,000, although there was a scare for them inside two minutes of the restart when Giroud needed lengthy treatment for an ankle injury.
Wenger cleared feared he would have to replace his forward; instead he was celebrating another goal from the strike in the 50th minute.
Giroud looked far from comfortable as he started the move near the halfway line, but still advanced far enough to capitalise on more smart work by Campbell to stroke in his second goal.
It gave the match a scoreline that was sufficient to take Arsenal in the next stage of the competition and Walcott, now living on borrowed time, almost added another goal when his 56th minute shot was deflected wide.
The next few minutes were worrying for Arsenal as Cech had to save from Fortounis and Pajtim Kasami, but all their concerns were erased by Giroud in the 67th minute.
The striker completed his hat-trick when he stroked in a confident penalty after Omar Elabdellaoui handled a cross from Monreal and effectively guaranteed that Wenger’s team would emerge again from the group stage.
Roberto, Elabdellaoui, da Costa, Siovas, Masuaku, Kasami (Dominguez 71), Milivojevic, Seba (Hernani 77), Fortounis, Pardo (Finnbogason 86),Ideye.
Cech,Bellerin,Mertesacker,Koscielny,Monreal,Ramsey, Flamini,Walcott (Gibbs 72),Ozil, Campbell (Oxlade-Chamberlain 90),Giroud (Chambers 90).
Nicola Rizzoli (Italy).
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