Winning tonight ensures Arsenal will be guaranteed at minimum a berth in the Europa League, as Dinamo cannot hope to overtake the Gunners in the standings.
Arsenal were a little slow out of the blocks, but quickly started to dominate possession and create chances.
They finally scored a delightful goal with Mesut Ozil heading home an Alexis cross.
Alexis doubled the lead shortly after when he stabbed home a fine cross from Nacho Monreal.
Another Monreal cross just before halftime almost resulted in a third goal, but Ozil’s shot was well saved by Eduardo.
Arsenal continued to dominate play in the second half and Zagreb threatened only briefly on one or two occasions.
Alexis put the game out of reach when he latched onto a fine pass from Joel Campbell, rounded the keeper and scored into the empty net.
The biggest surprise of the night was that Arsenal scored just three, when they should’ve scored several more. They’ll need to be sharper in front of the goal in Athens if they hope to advance to the second round of the Champions League.
Player Ratings:
Cech 6: Almost nothing to do. The only difficult save he had to make was to palm away a ball that had deflected off Flamini.
Bellerin 7: A much better performance after Saturday. He was more confident coming forward and he put in a couple of decent crosses.
Mertesacker 6: He had little to do and he mopped up most of the attacks that came his way.
Koscielny 7: Did what Mertesacker did but he was stronger on the ball.
Monreal 8: He played well defensively and had one of his best ever attacking games for the Gunners. He assisted on the second goal and could well have had two more for other good crosses he made.
Flamini 7: Helped the Gunners dominate the midfield and kept the ball moving. He made one flying tackle, but escaped a yellow card.
Cazorla 8: Popped up all over the field, distributing the ball, doing some fancy dribbling, and helping to keep the team attacking.
Ozil 9: One of my two men of the match. He was absolutely dominant, scoring a great goal with his head. He almost headed home a second, but the effort was just wide of the goal. He had several other good chances at goal and his dribbling was great to see at times. His passing was super as well. He’s just getting better and better for Arsenal.
Campbell 8: A performance that puts the Albion match to bed. He was very good in the first half and made a number of good runs and attempted to combine with those around him. His assist in the second half came from one of his dribbling moves inside and he made a nice through pass to Alexis.
Giroud 6: He had few opportunities and more often was a decoy that kept the Zagreb players distracted.
Sanchez 9: Two goals and an assist on Ozil’s goal. He should’ve been awarded a penalty when the goalie tripped him up. He kept the Dinamo players busy the entire night. A strong performance.
Substitutes:
Ramsey 6: Aaron made his return from injury and got a good twenty minutes of playing time.
Chambers n/a: Put in about ten minutes as a holding midfielder.
Debuchy n/a: Provided some relief for Bellerin.