Olivier Giroud has fond memories of playing against Australia at international level - and he can't wait to touch down in Sydney for our pre-season tour.
Speaking ahead of the trip the France international recalled scoring twice in a 6-0 win against the Socceroos and admitted that he's excited to experience the culture too.
Scroll down to find out what Olivier told Arsenal Player:
on going to Australia on tour…
To be honest, I’ve never been in Australia - or Straya as they say apparently! So yeah, I’m looking forward to it and I’m very excited to meet people there, our fans, and I can’t wait for it. It’s a new culture, it’s so far from Europe so it’s going to be a long way, a long trip but I can’t wait to go there.
on scoring twice in a 6-0 win over Australia…
It was in Parc des Princes in Paris. It was a good win, we did very well. I remember Patrice Evra, I cut back and he gave me the back pass and I tried to chip the ball above the keeper. It was a good finish, I remember this one - it was one of my best ones with the national team. Obviously I scored a brace so it was a good memory. I remember some players, some Australian players like Jedinak who used to play for Palace and I remember he was the captain. Now he plays for Villa. He’s a really good guy and I don’t know, I think I took his shirt. I don’t remember but hopefully I will grab one Australian shirt when I get there.
on the Australian way of playing…
They play with freedom, I think. They are very generous, strong, determined and they just play forward. They don’t calculate too much and they play with their hearts, like they play maybe in rugby too! I’m a big fan of rugby so I have to say that it was a very tough game, even if we succeeded to kill the game quickly because we scored and were efficient. But I remember a very proud and generous team.
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