Lukas Podolski maintained Arsenal’s 100 percent start to their UEFA Champions League campaign as the Gunners recovered from a lackluster opening to beat Greek side Olympiakos 3-1 on Wednesday.
Arsene Wenger’s side were below their best for long periods at the Emirates Stadium, but Germany international forward Podolski made the crucial contribution as he put Arsenal ahead after Gervinho’s opener was canceled out by Olympiakos striker Kostas Mitroglou.
Aaron Ramsey’s late strike ensured Arsenal, who defeated Montpellier Herault in their opening Group B fixture, remain firmly on course to qualify for the round-of-16, but Wenger will know there is still plenty of room for improvement, especially in a defense which struggled to cope with Olympiakos’ relatively limited forward line.
Photo: Reuters
“They made it really tough for us,” Arsenal assistant coach Steve Bould said. “We started off not bad, but then looked nervous. The result from the weekend drained us a little and we lost a little bit of confidence, but overall it is a fantastic result.”
Wenger admitted this week that his players were still feeling down after suffering their first defeat of the season against Chelsea on Saturday and he had challenged them to show they are mentally strong enough to cope with negative results.
In the circumstances, Olympiakos, who lost at Schalke 04 in their opening group match, should have been welcome opponents for Arsenal, who had beaten the Greek side at home twice in the past three seasons, but Wenger, watching from the stands as he served a European touchline ban, must have been concerned in the early stages.
The Gunners looked short of confidence and almost self-destructed when Vito Mannone and Thomas Vermaelen made a hash of a short goal-kick, only for Olympiakos to squander the opportunity.
Santi Cazorla’s inswinging free-kick forced Balazs Megyeri into action for the first time, but a succession of misplaced passes from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain and Mikela Arteta brought a chorus of disapproval from the frustrated home fans.
That anxiety was creeping into Arsenal’s play as well and Laurent Koscielny was fortunate to escape with a booking after launching into a needless two-footed lunge on Paulo Machado.
Olympiakos were starting to scent blood and Mitroglou’s first-time shot had Mannone scrambling to save.
Leonardo Jardim’s side went even closer when Arsenal’s statuesque back four failed to deal with a Giannis Maniatis cross, but from point-blank range Machado managed to scoop his shot wide.
Out of nowhere Arsenal sparked into life and took the lead through Gervinho’s fifth goal of the season in the 42nd minute.
Podolski directed a cross toward the edge of the Olympiakos penalty area and Arteta disrupted the visitors’ attempts to clear, allowing Gervinho to pounce on the loose ball, before driving in a low shot that beat slow-to-react Megyeri.
However, Arsenal’s lead was short-lived as Olympiakos leveled on the stroke of halftime.
Leandro Greco curled over a teasing cross and Mitroglou, granted too much space between Koscielny and Vermaelen, rose to glance a superb header over Mannone and into the far corner.
Cazorla should have put the hosts back in front in the opening moments of the second half, but the Spanish midfielder side-footed wide from Podolski’s cross.
There would be no need for any recriminations, though, as Podolski showed his teammate how to do it in the 56th minute.
Gervinho’s initial cross was blocked by Kostas Manolas, but the rebound fell into the Ivorian’s path and he flicked a pass toward Podolski, who turned sharply before planting a powerful low strike under Megyeri.
That blow seemed to shatter Olympiakos’ spirit and Wales international midfielder Ramsey came off the bench to seal the win with a cool chipped finish in stoppage-time.
Revelations of positive doping tests for nearly two dozen Chinese swimmers that went unpunished sparked an intense flurry of accusations and legal threats between the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the head of the US drug-fighting organization, who has long been one of WADA’s fiercest critics. WADA on Saturday said it was turning to legal counsel to address a statement released by US Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) CEO Travis Tygart, who said WADA and anti-doping authorities in China swept positive tests “under the carpet by failing to fairly and evenly follow the global rules that apply to everyone else in the world.” The
Taiwanese judoka Yang Yung-wei on Saturday won silver in the men’s under-60kg category at the Asian Judo Championships in Hong Kong. Nicknamed the “judo heartthrob” in Taiwan, the Olympic silver-medalist missed out on his first Asian Championships gold when he lost to Japanese judoka Taiki Nakamura in the finals. Yang defeated three opponents on Saturday to reach the final after receiving a bye through the round of 32. He first topped Laotian Soukphaxay Sithisane in the round of 16 with two seoi nage (over-the-shoulder throws), then ousted Indian Vijay Kumar Yadav in the quarter-finals with his signature ude hishigi sankaku gatame (triangular armlock). He
RALLY: It was only the second time the Taiwanese has partnered with Kudermetova, and the match seemed tight until they won seven points in a row to take the last set 10-2 Taiwan’s Chan Hao-ching and Russia’s Veronika Kudermetova on Sunday won the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix women’s doubles final in Stuttgart, Germany. The pair defeated Norway’s Ulrikke Eikeri and Estonia’s Ingrid Neel 4-6, 6-3, 10-2 in a tightly contested match at the WTA 500 tournament. Chan and Kudermetova fell 4-6 in the first set after having their serve broken three times, although they played increasingly well. They fought back in the second set and managed to break their opponents’ serve in the eighth game to triumph 6-3. In the tiebreaker, Chan and Kudermetova took a 3-0 lead before their opponents clawed back two points, but
Taiwanese gymnast Lee Chih-kai failed to secure an Olympic berth in the pommel horse following a second-place finish at the last qualifier in Doha on Friday, a performance that Lee and his coach called “unconvincing.” The Tokyo Olympics silver medalist finished runner-up in the final after scoring 6.6 for degree of difficulty and 8.800 for execution for a combined score of 15.400. That was just 0.100 short of Jordan’s Ahmad Abu Al Soud, who had qualified for the event in Paris before the Apparatus World Cup series in Qatar’s capital. After missing the final rounds in the first two of four qualifier