After Per Mertesacker sang the praises of our attack against Dinamo Zagreb, Laurent Koscielny also found time to hail our defence for keeping a clean sheet.

As great as scoring three goals is for the team, it’d mean nothing if we conceded the same amount or more at the other end. This is why defending is such an important part of the game. Although this may seem as if I’m just pointing out the obvious to most of you, it’s surprising how few people, particularly in the media, forget that defenders exist.

After the 3-0 win, Kos complimented the way the team defended as a whole and highlighted the importance of the clean sheet.

“We kept a clean sheet so that’s very important because the last result was not good,” the centre back said.

“Now we have a chance to qualify for the next round.”

He added, “I think tonight all the team did a great job. We also defended well together, as a unit and like we did before.”

Thanks to that clean sheet, we might now progress to the knock-out stages of the Champions League, which, if you’d told me after our huge loss away to Bayern, I would have cackled in your face.