Confident Bendtner makes amends

SOCCER:NICKLAS BENDTNER insisted Saturday's horror show was not on his mind as he struck his first hat-trick in Arsenal's 5-0 win over Porto at the Emirates Stadium.

The Dane was derided for a performance against Burnley on Saturday in which he missed a sackful of chances, but he made amends in style last night as Arsenal claimed a 6-2 aggregate win to book their quarter-final place.

Asked if Saturday had played on his mind, he told Sky Sports 2: “Not at all. Every time I play a game I put it behind me as soon as it’s finished. Sometimes it’s one of those days and today I put it right.

“I’m happy with my hat-trick but tomorrow we move on.”

Bendtner, who was on the scoresheet after just 10 minutes, added: “It was good to score early but I don’t know if that affected my game.”

Arsenal also had excellent goals from Samir Nasri and substitute Emmanuel Eboue to round off an impressive attacking performance.

“It will give us a lot of confidence,” added Bendtner.

“We want to win the Champions League. It’s something we haven’t done.

“We scored all our chances today which is very positive.”

Gunners boss Arsene Wenger was understated in his praise of the Dane.

“I hope it will not give him too much confidence,” he said.

“It’s good for him. He played well on Saturday but missed chances.

“Today he had less chances and scored more goals. I hope it gives him the desire to work even harder.”

On the team’s showing, the Frenchman added: “It’s never perfect but it was a very good performance, a strong performance.

“We had a very good first half, suffered a bit at the beginning of the second half, but after the goal of Nasri it made a big difference and from then it was easy.

“It was individual brilliance (from Nasri) but overall we had a solid team performance, we were serious, had good solidarity and, as we can play, a fluid game.”

Wenger said he would not be disappointed to draw an English side in the next round.

“I have a funny feeling maybe it’s good for us to play an English team,” he said.

“We have not done well against Chelsea and against Man U this year and it would be a good chance to show we can do it against them.”