Arsenal striker Olivier Giroud has afforded an insight into the Gunners’ plans for their Champions League bout against Barcelona on Tuesday.
The Gunners are outsiders for their double-header against the reigning European champions, and will surely need to avoid defeat in this week’s first leg at the Emirates Stadium to stand any chance of advancing to the quarter-finals.
Speaking ahead of the match, Giroud has revealed that he is confident he and his teammates can beat Barcelona, despite describing them as ‘unstoppable’.
“We would love to beat them because they look unstoppable,” the French striker began, as reported by the official Arsenal website. “We need to play our best game all together and at 100 per cent. Otherwise we’re not going to play this game and we’re going to lose it.
“We are confident, we need to be confident and play the Arsenal way. We did well against Munich. We know that we can beat big teams but there is one thing for sure: we need to be at 100 per cent and be determined,” the striker continued.
Giroud also looked back over Arsenal’s dramatic group-stage campaign, and insisted that the side have already proved—against Bayern Munich—that they can cut it against one of the continent’s genuine giants.
Heading into their third group stage match against the German giants at the Emirates Stadium, the Gunners were desperate for a result to reignite their flagging campaign, having lost their opening two group stage matches.
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They defeated Pep Guardiola’s side thanks to two efforts inside the final 13 minutes, with Giroud and Mesut Ozil finding the net to give Arsenal a platform upon which to launch an unlikely salvation act.
“We just need to focus and give 100 per cent all together with good team cohesion. After that we will put what we need into this game – a lot of commitment and determination. We managed that against Bayern and that will help us to win,” Giroud continued.
“We did very well against Olympiacos to qualify as it was very hard. We are looking forward to playing Barcelona who are maybe the best team in the world today. We are going to play our game.”