Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger expressed his happiness at qualifying for the knockout stages for the 13th time in a row, while praising the performances of Jack Wilshere and Olivier Giroud.
Arsenal qualified for the last-16, with a trouble-free 2-0 win over Montpellier, and Schalke's 1-0 win over Olympiakos. Arsenal currently lie in second with one match remaining, and will need Schalke to drop points at Montpellier, while ensuring a win for themselves to seal top spot in Group B - something that Arsene Wenger is hoping to do.
"Thirteen times in a row we have qualified for the last 16 -- I'm very proud," Wenger said. "It's not as easy as it appears, because if you look across Europe not many teams do it.
"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."
Arsenal were poor in the first half, and were only helped by an equally pedestrian performance from their opponents. The second period, however, saw a much better side come out, and once the Gunners scored the opening goal through Jack Wilshere, they took control of the game, with Lukas Podolski capping off the victory with a wonderful volley.
"We needed two good results -- ours and Schalke's -- so we are happy," Wenger added. "Montpellier were well organised, strong in their challenges and aggressive, so we had to concentrate, not make mistakes and take our chances.
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."
Wilshere scored his first goal on returning from a 17-month injury layoff and Wenger was happy to see his young player make his mark in Europe. "I'm pleased to see Jack Wilshere getting stronger and stronger after such a long time out," he said. "He had a difficult start to the game, but you could see after the goal he got more confident.
"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."
Montpellier manager Rene Girard admitted his side did not do enough to warrant a victory. "Over the 90 minutes we played well but lacked a bit of consistency," the Frenchman said. "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."
