Tongues are still wagging about the Mesut Ozil goal which settled the Champions League game against Ludogorets in Sofia Tuesday night with teammate Aaron Ramsey struggling to find the right superlatives to describe the goal, both for its importance and quality.
Ozil’s goal – lobbing the keeper and deceiving two defenders before stroking the ball into an empty net – took the breath of even his team-mates away.
Ramsey said: “I was saying, ‘Shoot! Shoot!’ so many times and he kept faking. He’s a quality player and it was a great finish, so calm in that situation.”
“I’m sure a lot of players would have shot first time, but not him. He made a couple of their players look silly, sliding on the floor. It was a great finish.”
The Gunners were two goals down inside 15 minutes but hauled themselves level before half-time through Granit Xhaka and Olivier Giroud. Then Ozil won the match with three minutes left with a quite brilliant solo goal to confirm qualification from Group A alongside Paris St Germain.
“It was a difficult game. Going 2-0 down wasn’t the start we wanted, but with the belief and spirit we have in this team we showed great character to come back and win it.
“These things happen and it’s how you respond. We’ve managed to achieve qualification, and we want to top the group to be on the favourable side of the draw. The next game [at home to PSG on November 23] is going to be the big one.
“I’ve been out for a couple of months and it was great to be back out there starting again.
“As a team it was important to keep the momentum going. We’ve been on a great run and to keep that ticking over puts us in a good position going into the derby [on Sunday against Tottenham].”
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