‘We have the Arsenal to beat Barcelona’ – Olivier Giroud

Arsenal forward Olivier Giroud has insisted that his side can defeat Barcelona and progress through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League.

The Gunners welcome the Spanish giants to the Emirates tomorrow night for the first leg of their last-16 tie and although they go into the encounter as massive underdogs, the Frenchman believes that they have enough “quality” to cause an upset and oust the reigning champions.

“It’s always a big [deal] for players to play this kind of game, especially against Barcelona, so we will enjoy it and give the maximum to give pleasure to our fans and take a lot of pleasure ourselves on the pitch,” Giroud told reporters. “And why not win this game? Because we have the quality for that.

“Obviously they are favourites. But we have good quality and good quantity this year, and even though we had a lot of injuries this year, we did well during a tough moment in the autumn.

“We have our players back so we are very happy with that. For example, Danny [Welbeck] made the difference against Leicester and I was very pleased for him. We have a strong squad and that’s why we can play every game in competitions.”

Giroud also insisted that Arsenal can also remain competitive in the Premier League title race and the FA Cup, where they are looking to become the first club in the competition’s history to win the trophy three times in a row.

“We want to play in every single competition,” he added. “We want to keep the FA Cup for us and beat that record hopefully of winning it three times in a row. For the title race we are still in a strong position and we want to keep it up. But we have big games to come so we will have time to focus on the Premier League, but tomorrow is the Champions League.”

After starting on the bench in the FA Cup stalemate with Hull at the weekend, Giroud is expected to return to lead the line tomorrow night.