That’s all from me. Thanks for your company, it’s been a blast. Bye!
A fine performance from Arsenal, who were emphatically superior to their opponents and scored a couple of lovely goals. Their place in Europe is therefore secure – all that remains is to work out which competition they’ll be playing in. That’ll be decided in Greece on 9 December, when Arsenal will have to win by two goals, or score at least three times and win by any margin, if they are to go through. Handily, they have no big massive enormous potential title deciders in their next few domestic fixtures, which will pit them against Norwich (a), Sunderland (h) and then, after the Olympiakos game, Aston Villa (a), Aaron Ramsey’s back, and everything looks wonderful.
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Final score: Arsenal 3-0 Dinamo Zagreb
90+2 mins: The referee blows his whistle for the final time, and Arsenal have very much done the business.
90+1 mins: Rog blasts the ball vaguely goalwards, forcing Cech into a dive but not into an actual save.
90+1 mins: Into stoppage time we step, and we’ll have at least two minutes of it.
88 mins: Oooooh! Sánchez tricks and twiddles, Özil runs past him, Sánchez flicks the ball up and Özil, running beyond the defence, nearly scores with a back-header! He doesn’t, though, because it misses the goal by a yard.
87 mins: Some highlights for you (which you may or may not be able to actually watch, depending on where you live):
#YaGunnersYa! @MesutOzil1088 opens the scoring for @Arsenal ⚽️ #UCL https://t.co/vM2FJtrMjJ
— BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) November 24, 2015
.@joel_campbell12's defence-splitting pass tees up @Alexis_Sanchez for @Arsenal's third goal of the evening. #UCL https://t.co/aPihLJjmFS
— BT Sport Football (@btsportfootball) November 24, 2015
85 mins: Soudani shoots again. This time he’s onside, but the shot doesn’t much trouble Cech.
84 mins: A substitution for Dinamo, as Ante Coric comes on for Paulo Machado.
@Simon_Burnton what possible reason could there be for Wenger to leave Sanchez on?
— Pete Mumola (@nolecat34) November 24, 2015
They don’t play again until Sunday, and he’s looking happy enough, so no need to stress?
83 mins: Dinamo are pinging the ball around now, having a long spell of possession in irrelevant areas before Rog decides to run into the heart of the Arsenal defence, and loses the ball.
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82 mins: Bellerin and Cazorla come off, and Mathieu Debuchy and Calum Chambers come on.
81 mins: Soudani has a goal disallowed! He was a couple of yards offside, so it wasn’t exactly close, but still, nicely finished.
80 mins: Actually Chelsea are 3-0 up, Oscar having extended their lead.
79 mins: Other-English-Club latest: Chelsea are 2-0 up at Maccabi Tel Aviv, but John Terry has been stretchered off.
77 mins: Arsenal want a penalty! And they’re not getting one! Alexis cuts in from the right, in the process going past the keeper, but pushing the ball into the path of Taravel. Sánchez goes down and looks very angry indeed when the referee turns away.
76 mins: The ball is passed high to Sánchez, who jumps and turns away from it, controlling with the top of his back and then landing, turning and taking possession. Show-off.
74 mins: Bayern are now 4-0 up against Olympiakos. This has been a very satisfactory evening for Arsenal.
@joel_campbell12 having a very tidy game, doubt you'll hear much about that in post-game *analysis". #ARSvZAG @Simon_Burnton
— Taylor Sluggish (@_beNZed) November 24, 2015
He has indeed. Always ready to receive the ball on the right, and has created several chances (and a goal).
72 mins: Save from Cech! Pjaca sends in a low ball from the left, and it comes off Koscielny, flies into Rog and deflects towards the bottom corner only for Cech to dive to his right to stop it!
GOAL! Arsenal 3-0 Dinamo Zagreb (Sánchez, 69 mins)
Lovely through-ball from Campbell, who cuts in from the right and times his pass nicely to find Sánchez, running from left to right across the area, whose first touch takes him past the keeper, and whose second sends the ball into the net.
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68 mins: Aaron Ramsey comes on, replacing Giroud. It’s his first appearance for a month and a couple of days.
67 mins: Soudani wins a corner for Zagreb. It’s cleared.
@Simon_Burnton I just realized that as long as Olympiakos lose, this match means absolutely nothing except to settle the #5 tiebreaker.
— Rob Pait (@robpait) November 24, 2015
So long as Arsenal do indeed win, and Bayern do too, this is true. Still, we’re having fun, aren’t we?
66 mins: Monreal gets booked, and from the resulting free-kick Arsenal nearly score, raiding down the right but the low cross is cut out by the only defender anywhere near anything.
64 mins: Campbell volleys wide! Ozil passes to Sánchez, who sends a first-time pass towards Campbell. Santos gets a foot to it, sending the ball looping up into the air, and Campbell sends it beyond the far post as it returns to land.
64 mins: Good spell this from Zagreb, but it ends with Ivo Pinto crossing from the right and Cech catching it.
63 mins: Barcelona continue to play in a different galaxy. They’re 5-0 up against Roma, and Messi has scored again.
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62 mins: From which nothing much happens. Arsenal still have the ball, but back on the half-way line.
61 mins: Arsenal push again, and Sánchez passes towards Giroud, running across the penalty area. There’s pretty much no way of him getting a shot on target there, but fortunately a defender boots the ball into touch and the Gunners have a corner.
59 mins: From the corner, Sánchez heads well wide.
58 mins: Arsenal break, and Hector Bellerin sprints down the right. He’s got two players to his left, but he likes running and fancies his chances of outsprinting Ivo Pinto, so Bellerin keeps going. He doesn’t outsprint Ivo Pinto, though, and the two players to his left flings their arms about angrily.
56 mins: A substitution for Dinamo, who take off Junior Fernandes and bring on El Arabi Hilal Soudani, and moments later Matel cuts in from the left and his shot is deflected just past the far post.
@Simon_Burnton Arsenal allowing two goals in this half would be the most Arsenal thing...since the last most Arsenal thing.
— Kerry Butt (@THEkerrybutt) November 24, 2015
I cannot disagree with your analysis.
53 mins: Dinamo continue to press, and Monreal makes two mistakes in a minute. First he totally misses his kick in the penalty area, allowing an opponent to steal in and take the ball. Monreal wins it back, works space, and then sends his pass out of play.
50 mins: Dinamo have a chance to make a chance, with Junior Fernandes on the ball and in space on the right. He waits for someone to make a run in the middle, but nobody does so he just crosses it anyway, and it’s headed clear.
47 mins: Chance! And then another chance! Cazorla forces Eduardo into a diving save, and from the corner Giroud shoulders the ball into Taravel, who diverts it towards his own goal, where it’s saved again!
@Simon_Burnton does arsenal deserve to move on ?
— ulmerle100 (@ulmerle100) November 24, 2015
I’d say they do. They’re surely one of the best 16 teams in Europe, a claim neither Olympiakos nor Dinamo Zagreb could reasonably make.
46 mins: Peeeeeep! We’re off! Again!
The teams are back out, and Arsenal are in a very good place. They haven’t won successive home Champions League group games since 2012, remarkably, but that’s surely about to change.
The 27 passes in the build-up to that Messi goal is a new Champions League record, as the most passingest move ever to lead to a CL goal. Yes, passingest. What about it?
Barcelona are meanwhile 3-0 up against Roma and scoring the kind of goals that suggest everyone else really should pack their bags and go home.
Half time: Arsenal 2-0 Dinamo Zagreb
45 mins: We’ve had two goals, but we get just one second of stoppage time.
@rojwild @Simon_Burnton If the head-to-head is identical (a 3-2 Arsenal win in Athens), then presumably it goes to total goal difference.
— Doremus Schafer (@Doremus42) November 24, 2015
Indeed. Teams are separated by:
1) Points against teams you’re level with
2) Goal difference from games against those teams
3) Most goals scored in those games
4) Most goals scored away from home in those games
5) Goal difference in all group matches
6) Goals scored in all group matches
43 mins: Chance for Arsenal! And Özil should have had another at the end of a lovely tippy-tappy move, but Eduardo saves!
40 mins: Chance for Arsenal! Özil is held back by Gonçalo Santos on the edge of the area but refuses to stop, runs into the box and, with two unmarked team-mates to his right, shoots and misses! Any kind of half-decent cross and it would have been 3-0.
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39 mins: Sánchez sprints 50 yards but fails to chase down Özil’s pass.
@Simon_Burnton does goal difference matter to arsenal's chances to move on??
— Roger Wild (@rojwild) November 24, 2015
Um, not really. It’s head-to-head record first – Arsenal lost 3-2 at home to Olympiakos, so would need to win by two or score more than two.
36 mins: Taravel stops Özil in his tracks, but repeatedly kicking him in the calves until he falls over. The referee’s notebook remains empty.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-0 Dinamo Zagreb (Sánchez, 33 mins)
Another one! Arsenal lose the ball but Leonardo Sigali gives it right back to them, pretty much passing to Monreal, 25 yards out, who bursts into the box and sets up Sánchez!
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32 mins: So at the start of the evening Olympiakos had a goal difference of 0, and Arsenal’s was -4. Now they’re both on -3.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Dinamo Zagreb (Özil, 29 mins)
The breakthrough! Arsenal work the ball out of defence – just, coming fractions of moments from being dispossessed on half a dozen occasions – and then break, run down the left, cross into the middle, and Özil dives to divert the ball into the corner of the net. Nicely done.
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27 mins: Paulo Machado, probably Zagreb’s best player, collects the ball in front of his defence and Flamini flies into him. Literally just leaps straight into him. It’s a foul, but he remains bizarrely unbooked.
25 mins: Özil is pulling all the strings here, but Arsenal’s latest semi-chance falls to Bellerin, who runs onto Campbell’s pass, cuts onto his left foot and is closed down just as he shoots.
22 mins: They emerge from midfield with a couple of zippy passes to the left wing and a cross towards Giroud, who attempts an acrobatic left-foot volley and – perhaps because Campbell arrived and got in his way – makes no contact.
21 mins: Arsenal are bossing possession, but in a bit of an irrelevant midfield rut. It’s now 3-0 in Bayern, whose goals are no longer anything to be excited about. Müller has scored their latest. And Cahill has put Chelsea 1-0 up.
18 mins: Another GOAL FOR ARSENAL IN A GAME NOT INVOLVING ARSENAL! It’s Bayern Munich 2-0 Olympiakos, and at the moment Arsenal’s Champions League future is in their own hands.
16 mins: Sanchez keep jinking onto his right foot every time he gets the ball, and Dinamo keep taking the ball off him every time he does. This has got to stop.
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14 mins: Cazorla overhits a pass to Campbell and the ball trundles out of play. Arsenal are starting to dominate now.
@Simon_Burnton Looking forward to your reporting. Here in Brazil after ESPN sold the rights only 20% of Brazilians have access to Champs Lge
— Simon Robinson (@srerobinson) November 24, 2015
Consider yourselves lucky: I’m not sure how many people subscribe to BT Sport in the UK, but I’m guessing it’s a lot less than 20%.
12 mins: Chance for Arsenal! Alexis Sanchez has it, taking Campbell’s pass in the penalty area, but his first touch is poor, he jinks onto his right and is crowded out of possession.
11 mins: GOAL! Not in this game, but basically a GOAL FOR ARSENAL! in everything but name – Bayern Munich are one up against Olympiakos!
9 mins: Dinamo win, and waste, another corner. So, apparently Boris Becker is at AFC Wimbledon v Dagenham and Redbridge this evening. Which is unexpected.
7 mins: Chance for Arsenal! Joel Campbell runs down the right and pulls back to Cazorla, arriving unmarked into the penalty area, who should have done much better than to blaze over the bar.
5 mins: Alexis Sanchez collects the ball, jinks a bit, hurdles a challenge, decides he’d have been better off going over the challenge so falls over, is ignored by the referee.
@tomd1900 @Simon_Burnton That's Vic Akers, ex manager of @ArsenalLadies. With an OBE you can wear shorts when you like!
— Anna Goss (@annagoss) November 24, 2015
Is that the rule? If people wear fewer clothes the more honours they get, I would be forced to conjure some awkward mental imagines involving the Queen.
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2 mins: And now they’ve got a corner. Arsenal yet to demonstrate their superiority.
.@Simon_Burnton isn´t this the kind of game Arsene should start Opsina. sowing the seeds of his own destruction, keeping things interesting?
— M. Carpenter-Arevalo (@ecuamatt) November 24, 2015
I can’t help noticing you’ve misspelt the name of Arsenal’s reserve goalkeeper. For future reference, it’s written Whoopsina.
1 min: Just 25 seconds in, and it’s already looking a little manic. Dinamo have the first kind-of-attack, sliding in a cross from the right that’s cleared for a throw-in.
1 min: Peeeep! They’re off!
@Simon_Burnton Re THAT picture. I'd really have thought it'd be nicer in there? No real seats? Closet from recycled school desks? 1(2)
— Tom D. (@tomd1900) November 24, 2015
@Simon_Burnton 2 (2). But my real question is: why is the kit man in shorts? How's the weather? And when's the last time he did any running?
— Tom D. (@tomd1900) November 24, 2015
I cannot answer your kit-man question. There are no answers. As for it looking uncomfortable, this is what they used to have, not so long ago.
The players are in the tunnel. We’re but a pitchwards march, an anthem, some handshakes, a brief warm-up, a coin toss and perhaps another ad break away from action!
The scene inside the home dressing room just a short while ago. Looks like they’re going long-sleeved tonight then.
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Rio Ferdinand is not an Arsenal fan, I’m guessing. So far tonight, when he’s part of BT Sport’s studio panel, he’s described Mertesacker as the type of defender any striker would want to play against, and Arsenal in general as a one-dimensional outfit over-reliant on a below-his-best Alexis Sánchez. Cripes.
Per Mertesacker insists Arsenal still have a Champions League future:
I’m pretty convinced that the German team will help us. Bayern will give everything against Olympiakos, that’s their nature. They won’t just turn up to that game. I’m pretty convinced that they will win, but first of all we have to win, and that’s my main focus.
Marko Rog has an excellent name. Unimprovable, in many ways. No messing about. Does the basics well, and leaves the fancy stuff to others.
The teams
The teams are now properly in:
Arsenal: Cech; Bellerin, Mertesacker, Koscielny, Monreal; Flamini, Cazorla; Campbell, Özil, Sánchez; Giroud. Subs from: Ospina, Debuchy, Gibbs, Gabriel, Ramsey, Chambers, Reine-Adelaide.
Dinamo Zagreb: Eduardo; Ivo Pinto, Sigali, Taravel, Matel; Pjaca, Machado, Santos, Antolic, Fernandes; Rog. Subs from: Mikulic, Soudani, Musa, Sovsic, Henriquez, Pavicic, Coric.
Referee: V Kassai (Hungary).
On BT Sport, Reshmin Chawdhury previews the Barcelona match, then breaks off, gives us a few seconds of silence and exclaims: “Oh god, what is wrong with me today!” If she hadn’t asked – or stopped, to be fair – I wouldn’t have guessed there was anything wrong at all.
Hello world!
So here we are then, with Arsenal on the verge of perhaps being knocked out of one European competition and potentially into a different one. If they’re to have any hope whatsoever of remaining in the Champions League they must win tonight and hope that Bayern Munich beat Olympiakos, in which case it’ll all go down to their final game in Greece. And here’s the team they hope will put it off for them: Cech, Bellerin, Koscielny, Mertesacker, Monreal, Flamini, Cazorla, Campbell, Ozil, Alexis, Giroud.
Full line-ups, including Dinamo Zagreb’s, to follow very shortly.
Simon will be here shortly. In the meantime, here’s an extract from Barney Ronay on the prospect of Europa League action for Arsenal:
For the Premier League it is the gift that keeps on taking. The seasonal problem of exactly what to do with Uefa’s second string, the dreaded Europa League, is something Arsenal must now face up to as their final Champions League fixtures approach. There is already a creeping, slightly doom-laden orthodoxy here. Albeit one that could prove paradoxically self-destructive in the longer term.
Arsenal must win against Dinamo Zagreb at the Emirates on Tuesday night, hope Olympiakos are simultaneously beaten in Munich and then win by two goals in Greece on 9 December to reach the knockout stage elite come the spring. But is there any point in actually trying?
Finish third in the group after semi-heroic last-ditch failure in Greece and Arsenal will find themselves playing in Europe’s secondary vase for the first time since 2000. This is the most likely outcome for a team who, despite some recent setbacks, must still consider themselves in with a chance of winning the Premier League. Chuck in a new year resumption in Europe and that chance recedes even further.
The Europa “round of 32” kicks off on 18 February. For Arsenal this raises the prospect of a trip to some bruisingly motivated European hinterland before three league games in a week that includes trips to Manchester United and Tottenham. Struggle through that and the spring run-in, source so often of a season-saving run of form, could feature as many as nine additional midweek fixtures, plus the added dislocation of a Sunday afternoon league programme.
All in pursuit of a trophy that seems to have a deleterious effect on English teams generally. Last season Tottenham played 10 Europa League matches and dropped 14 points in subsequent Premier League fixtures (seven more at the end of May would have given them fourth spot). Everton dropped 16 points after Europa League ties. This season Liverpool have dropped nine. The sense of a wider Europa virus is present elsewhere too: of the Premier League’s six Europa representatives in the last three years, three have changed manager before the start of the following season.
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