Football
ESPN staff 8y

Arsenal 'don't want to defend' - Olympiakos' Alfred Finnbogason

Olympiakos striker Alfred Finnbogason has claimed Arsenal "don't want to defend" after Tuesday's 3-2 win at the Emirates Stadium.

Arsenal have lost both their opening Champions League games in Group F so far and face a difficult task if they are to progress to the next round for a 17th consecutive season.

They had fallen behind against the run of play on 32 minutes when corner from the right was cut back to the edge of the penalty area, where Felipe Pardo drilled in a low shot that deflected in off Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

Theo Walcott then equalised before David Ospina dropped a corner over his own line to make it 2-1 to the visitors.

Alexis Sanchez levelled on 65 minutes, but Olympiakos immediately scored through substitute Finnbogason to give the Greeks a first win in England at the 13th attempt.

"The first corner is something we practise on the training pitch because we know they have no man on the edge of the box," Iceland international Finnbogason said in The Guardian.

"When you play against this team you know they're going to have a lot of the ball. You have to defend well, have the lines tight and use your time when you have spaces -- and you know you're going to have spaces because they don't want to defend. So our plan worked."

Arsenal defender Per Mertesacker pointed the finger at his teammates for failing to carry out their defensive duties in the immediate aftermath of Sanchez's equaliser.

"After we scored it looked like we were not ready to win this game," Mertesacker said in the London Evening Standard.

"They took the lead three times easily and that is something that should not happen, especially when we are at home.

"After we made it 2-2 we rushed a bit and not everyone came back to a defensive position like we should have done. When we play like that, with that lack of concentration and discipline, we have got no chance."

He added: "At home we should be much more aggressive from the start and be more dynamic. That is what our game is all about, possession, but also dynamic-wise we should do much better, with the tempo and the speed.

"We need to come back to that if we want to be more successful in the Champions League and to qualify, we need to do much better."

Information from the Press Association was used in this report.

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