Thursday 10 December 2015 13:38, UK
Arsenal forward Theo Walcott believes no one will want to face them in the knockout stages of the Champions League after they battled their way out of the group phase.
Arsene Wenger's side beat Olympiakos 3-0 in Greece on Wednesday to advance in the competition, with French striker Olivier Giroud scoring a hat-trick.
The pressure was on Arsenal going into the game, with the Gunners needing to win by a two-goal margin, or a single-goal winning scoreline of 3-2 or higher, in order to reach the last 16.
They comfortably achieved that and will now play one of five teams in the next round - Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona, Wolfsburg or Zenit St Petersburg - but Walcott insists they fear none of those sides.
"It doesn't matter who we play. I think we can beat anyone on our day, definitely," he said.
"Hopefully if we can get players back fit as well, the squad will be even stronger than it is now.
"If we get the likes of Wolfsburg, we've played them in the Emirates Cup [Arsenal won 1-0 in July] but it will be a completely different ball game. They had a very good result against [Manchester] United.
"I'm sure none of them would like to play us after that result. Whoever you get in the draw is going to be difficult.
"You've seen teams struggle when they should be going through and winning. It is just the way it is now.
"You've seen that in the Premier League - teams are getting so much better."
Walcott also feels they will have learnt from their defeat to Monaco at the same stage of last season's Champions League.
The Gunners lost 3-1 at home before winning the return leg 2-0, an aggregate score that saw them go out on the away goals rule.
"Whoever we get, we need to respect them well. Against Monaco we didn't respect them at all," he added.
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