Napoli vs. Arsenal

2-0, Champions League, San Paolo Stadium, 11 December 2013

Ahead of this game, we knew that we were more or less guaranteed to qualify, the question was whether we would finish as runners-up or top of the group. However, at the end of the game we were closer to ending up as neither than we would have liked...

All in all, the game consisted of few clear-cut chances. Ten minutes into the first half Szczesny made a decent save from a shot on target while Giroud's effort on target was saved at the other end. Then Napoli had a shot over the bar and that was pretty much it for the first half.

In the second half things got a bit more interesting, though from our side it was not in a good way. Napoli fired wide before taking the lead as Higuain fired past Szczesny. With fifteen minutes to go Arteta was shown off the field as he received a second yellow card (meaning that he will miss the first game of the knock-out stages) and in the very last minute Napoli scored again, this time through Callejón.

Fortunately for us, they would have needed to win with at least 3-0 in order to qualify, so we made by the smallest possible margin, one goal. We did, however, lose the top spot to Dortmund, meaning that in the ensuing knock-out stages we will face one of the following teams: Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain, Bayern Munich, Atletico Madrid or Barcelona. I think it goes without saying which team we would prefer and what teams we wouldn't.