Laurent Koscielny has admitted that he struggles when defending against Alexis Sanchez, explaining the reasons why.
The Chilean was impressive in Arsenal’s 3-0 win against Dinamo Zagreb on Tuesday night, having assisted Mesut Ozil’s opening goal before scoring himself minutes before the break.
Koscielny underlined the importance of Tuesday night’s win and claimed it’s still possible for his team to go beyond the group stage, despite their disappointing start.
It was important to win tonight because we didn’t start well in the group stage.
It was our chance to [stay in contention of] qualifying for the next round, so we needed to play well and to score goals.
We kept a clean sheet so that’s very important because the last result was not good. Now we have a chance to qualify for the next round.
The French defender reflected on why the first 15 minutes were the hardest of the 90 and that everything went well from there.
After 10 or 15 minutes, we played with more confidence and we scored. After, it was easier to play. In the second half, we scored another goal. For us it was most important to win, keep a clean sheet and have the cards in our hands for the last game at Olympiacos.
He then praised his teammate Alexis , who he claims is a tough opponent to defend against. Koscielny believes it’s his speed and endurance that makes it really hard for defenders to stand in the Chilean’s way.
Alexis is interesting when he plays with the ball. With the runs [he makes] he’s very important because he’s so quick.
For the defence, it’s very hard to defend against him.
Koscielny went on to praise his teammates, beliving they were acting like a unit again and urged them to keep the momentum going.
I think tonight all the team did a great job. We also defended well together, as a unit and like we did before.
It’s important to keep this for the next game, against Norwich on Sunday.
The victory against Zagreb means Arsenal go into their final Group F match with a chance of qualifying for the competition’s knockout stages and to do so, the Gunners need to beat Olympiacos by two goals or a score of 3-2 or higher in Greece.
