Olympiakos coach Pedro Martins labelled Arsenal ‘Europa League contenders’ after Mikel Arteta’s side stumbled into the quarter-finals on Thursday night, while speaking to the Greek champions’ official website.
On a night when Tottenham suffered one of the most humiliating defeats in their history, losing 3-0 in Zagreb to crash out of Europe, Arsenal didn’t exactly set the world alight either.
If it wasn’t for a fine Bernd Leno save in the first half and a lack of real quality on Olympiakos’s behalf, they too could have been hanging on for dear life in their round-of-16, second-leg tie.
A 51st-minute strike from Youssef El-Arabi ensured that the Greek giants at least had a 1-0 win to show for their efforts in the English capital.
Although El-Arabi’s third goal in three games against the Gunners was not enough to turn around a 3-1 first leg deficit, Martins was thrilled to see his side hold their own at the home of one of the competition’s bona fide big-hitters.
“This means Olympiakos (is) a top club that can look all opponents straight in the eye. It was not easy because we faced a great team. Arsenal is one of the Europa League contenders,” Martins said at full-time.
“This is how our future shall be and we have won Europe’s respect.
“Today we won fair and square. We produced a great performance and gave it all. we had the belief and did our outmost. Had we not played in Athens like we did (last week), we would have qualified.”
Arsenal will need to do better than this, though, if they are going to go one step further than 2019 and lift the Europa League trophy in May.
El-Arabi’s winner was as avoidable as they come, with Dani Ceballos at fault once again, while Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and Martin Odegaard wasted golden opportunities at the other end.
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