please log in to view this image Venue: Karaiskakis Stadium Wednesday, December 9th 2015 KO Time: 19.45 BST please log in to view this image Head to Head Against Olympiacos: Played: 7 Wins: 3 Draws: 0 Losses: 4 Goals For: 11 Goals Against: 11 Goal Difference: 0 Last 6 Meetings: Arsenal 2-3 Olympiacos Olympiacos 2-1 Arsenal Arsenal 3-1 Olympiacos Olympiacos 3-1 Arsenal Arsenal 2-1 Olympiacos Olympiacos 1-0 Arsenal please log in to view this image please log in to view this image
We're going to have to take risks here but its our fault for being in this situation. Honestly, depleted squad or not, we are better than Olympiacos. We have to score early to make them nervous. If we score early and keep them on the back foot, whole avoiding the defensive stupidity we can nick a 2nd. At 2-0 it forces them to attack and if they come at us a 3rd goal will kill them. With Ozil providing, Giroud up front, Theo returning, Ramsey back in the middle, and Ox and Joel we have enough firepower to get the goals required. Just need to play it smart and we should book our place in the CL R16 as Europa really would just be annoying.
This UEFA rule of being 3rd and going to Europa is so stupid, the whole way it works downgrades the Europa League, and makes it feel like getting knocked out of the UCL and going to Europa is like a punishment. They should just disregard the dumb rule.
The bad news is that history, recent history is not on our side, we've had quite a few situations now in Europe, in the last 16 as we all know, when we've had to overcome a deficit, and always came up short, always so close, and yet so far, hopefully Tuesday doesn't turn into one of those were we make such a great valiant effort, and then fail again like against Milan, Munich, and Monaco.
Still in Athens at the mo, so will be finding a decent bar to watch on the big screen inclusive of my Arsenal shirt..god help me! COYG! Gutted there was no way of getting a ticket to the match.
We have to score at least three goals IMO. 2-0 is too risky, especially if that's the scoreline after 60 minutes. All it takes is one goal to concede at 2-0 and we are out. We are much better than them. That home defeat was an anomaly. I agree with the earlier post, we have to go all out. No point in being cautious because they only have to score once in this game, meaning we'd have to score 3 times. It's all on us.
This is not going to be easy. All our attacking players need to perform. Its 50/50 we are fully capable but it depends which Arsenal turns up. We can't afford yet ANOTHER quiet performance from the Ox.
Highly doubt we will keep a clean sheet, our defending in Europe is generally ****, we concede heavily in Europe. Is funny though we kept a clean sheet to Munich at home.
I don't agree with this at all. Looking at the last 6 encounters, they are not just as good as us, but are twice as good as us. I believe we will do enough, but only if we are at our best.
To be fair our results against them are skewed by normally playing them after we have already qualified from the group and so are giving our youth and squad players game time. So our last six results might not be a completely fair comparison of the level of both teams. I think we are capable of beating them by 2 goals but it's by no means a forgone conclusion, it'll require a good performance from the team.
I really would rather we qualify and stay in the CL even if we have a very slim chance of actually winning it, than drop down to the Europa. I think the Europa with Thursday night football would have more of an impact on our league performance and this year the league seems open for a few teams to have a go at it.
I agree I think the Europa would totally kill any chance we've got of winning the league. While if we'd finished 4th in the group we would have a much better chance in the league it would have severely impacted on England's rankings and the amount of teams qualify for the CL, so we really need to qualify for the CL knockouts, even if we get knocked out straight away
Totally agree. We are finding life difficult enough as it is without having to travel miles on a Thursday & than play weekends. Squad thin due to injuries although good to see Ramsey & Ox back.
Go on twitter a page called arsenal tickets or something like this it's organised by fans they only retweet sellers who are selling tickets at fv I think it's safe have used it a few times I'm sure someone has a spare they would sell to you
Agree with this. 2-3 sees us go through on GD so we might as well go all out and try and score 3 because we'll go all out and try to score 2. We run the risk of conceding, but we can't play this game any other way as far as I can see.
From what I read, especially knowing the security surrounding European matches I was under the impression your ticket must contain your passport number, so not sure how a ticket could be transferred. hmmmmm
To be honest, do we really want to continue in Europe any longer, especially in Europa? I don't think we have the squad for it, we are barely holding it together and losing any more players in Europe could destroy our chances in the league. I think we need to prioritise.
I agree but the only options are - win and qualify for the cl knock outs or lose and qualify for the europa. I cant see us ever deliberately going out to lose a game, and I'd rather get through to the cl knockouts, help protect our seeding for next year and then lose to a good side than be in the europa, have englands rankings knocked further and then (potentially) lose against a worse side or go on a run in the europa
I don't advocate losing a game and we should always go out and try 100%. But I don't like us putting out the same first 11 for every game, sometimes we need to pad the team out with other squad players. We need to give the regulars some rest, otherwise we will continue to get more injuries. I would rest some of our key players and prioritise them in the league. This is the point of a squad, sometimes you need to mix things up a little to keep things fresh. We haven't done this much and have faced the consequences.
