Arsenal captain Martin Odegaard has said he and his teammates main target is to win this season’s UEFA Champions League.
The Gunners will host Dinamo Zagreb on matchday 7 today (Wednesday at the Emirates stadium.
Mikel Arteta’s side are in fifth place on 13 points in the Champions League league table and can seal automatic qualification into the knockout round with a win against Dinamo.
“We’ve had a lot of games lately, and it’s nice to mix it up and get back to European football tonight,” Odegaard said on Arsenal’s website. “We don’t need any reminding that the Champions League is the competition we all grew up dreaming about playing in. It’s the biggest stage, playing against the top teams, and especially at home it’s always special to line up for the anthem before the game.
“We really want to go far in this competition, and after last year we are determined to go further. Tonight is a big chance to get closer to that next round. It’s difficult to know how many points you will need in this new league format, but what we can say is that if we can get three points tonight, that would be a really big step for us with just one game left before the knockouts.
“We have worked hard in the league so far, so let’s make sure we finish it off well so we can get to the next round. The main goal is to go and win the tournament, and finishing as high as possible in the group could be crucial for that.
“Another difference this season is we play eight different teams, rather than three teams twice as happened in the old group stage, so we might not know some of the teams as well. That’s why our preparation is so important. As a group we haven’t played Dinamo before, so our coaches and analysts have been working with us over the past couple of days to make sure we are completely ready, and how we can best hurt the opposition. They do a great job on that, so we know what we can expect tonight.
Arsenal would hope to put behind them the disappointing 2-2 draw with Aston Villa which saw them surrender a 2-0 lead.
