Ludogorets 2 Arsenal 3: Mesut Ozil lauded by Arsene Wenger for wondergoal – despite the German superstar giving Gunners boss fright of his life
ARSENE WENGER paid tribute to Mesut Ozil despite his German superstar giving him the Champions League scare of his life.
Ozil grabbed a crucial 87th minute winner against Ludogorets to guarantee Arsenal’s qualification for the last 16.
But the decisive goal only came after he had chipped the keeper, dummied two defenders and rolled the ball into the empty net.
A relieved Wenger said: “I wanted Mesut to take the chance earlier but he had enough skill to prove that he was right.
“Great players make the right decisions in the situations they face. They take the optimum solution, although it didn’t look that way to me until the ball was finally in the back of the net.”
The win means that Arsenal will finish top of their group if they beat top seeds Paris St-Germain in their next Champions League match.
But they had to recover from a nightmare start when they conceded two goals in the first 15 minutes last night and Wenger admitted: “We were caught cold and were 2-0 down but we kept our composure, didn’t panic and came slowly back.
“It was important to be back to 2-2 by half-time and I give credit to the team spirit for that.
“You get belief with positive results and this result shows a healthy mentality in the squad. All those qualities came out in this game.
“The most difficult thing in life is to be consistent and this is now the 17th time we have reached the last 16.
“But hopefully we can go further this time and we are in a position where we can finish top of our group.
“Let’s maintain the quality of our results until the home game against Paris St-Germain and take our chance to continue.”
Wenger expects to have Theo Walcott, Hector Bellerin and Nacho Monreal all available to return for Sunday’s North London derby and suffered no new injury problems last night.
He admitted: “We dropped a bit physically in the second-half but we continued to dominate even if we were exposed to a few counter-attacks.”
Olivier Giroud, who scored Arsenal’s second goal, said: “It’s a good evening for us. We are on a strong run and we want to carry on our momentum even though it is still early in the season.
“We knew it wouldn’t be easy tonight but we never gave up and we keep trust in our game.”