Arsene Wenger has blamed bad luck for Arsenal’s second successive defeat in the Champions League this season and refused to blame goalkeeper David Ospina.
The Gunners were stunned 3-2 by Olympiacos at the Emirates on Tuesday, leaving the North London team with a mountain to climb, if they must progress to the knockout stages.
Wenger’s men, who lost 2-0 to Dinamo Zagreb in the first match, fought back to equalize twice, but conceded the winner within a minute of going 2-2.
“It is still possible of course to qualify but it is difficult to swallow losing a game like that,” he said.
“We lost it on a lack of defensive concentration and bad luck. They had four shots on goal and we conceded three goals.
“The turning point at 2-2 is we give them a goal again straight away. If it stays 2-2 for five minutes we win the game.”
Wenger also refused to call out Ospina, who fumbled a cross into his own net for Olympiacos’ second goal of the night.
“A goalkeeper can make a mistake but it doesn’t explain why we lose a game. It happened to Petr Cech earlier in the season.
“It took us a while to get into the game because we had a very intensive game on Saturday.
“I must say we put the effort in and everything went against us tonight.”