Wenger refuses to blame Ospina for loss to Olympiacos, says Arsenal will still qualify

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.”

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