Arsenal and Wenger eyeing top spot in Group B

Arsène Wenger, Arsenal manager
We needed two good results – ours and Schalke's – so we are happy. Montpellier were well organised, strong in their challenges and aggressive, so we had to concentrate, not make mistakes and take our chances. I'm pleased to see Jack Wilshere getting stronger and stronger after such a long time out. He had a difficult start to the game, but you could see after the goal he got more confident.

We didn't find our way in the first half – technically we weren't efficient and accurate. I was worried we would be caught on the counterattack, but in the second half we were much better and scored two very good goals. Olivier Giroud got two assists and defensively he was very reliable. He can score in the air and with his feet – he can be the complete striker. There is still work to do, but he is getting better all the time.

We will play the last game to finish top of the group. When you look at some of the other groups you don't know if first or second is better, but statistically it is always better to finish first and that's what we want to do. Thirteen times in a row we have qualified for the last 16 – I'm very proud. It's not as easy as it appears, because if you look across Europe not many teams do it.

René Girard, Montpellier coach
Over the 90 minutes we played well but lacked a bit of consistency. We were good in the first half in terms of aggression and forward runs, but we were just lacking something going forward. We particularly saw that in the second half and we began to physically struggle towards the end of the game.

Perhaps it was one match too far for us this evening given the number of injuries and players we had missing. We gave everything we could and I was very happy with our attitude, but if we can't score goals, then it does, of course, become more difficult.