The Dane put Arsenal 2-0 up in the first-half and completed his treble with a late penalty in the Champions League second round second-leg at the Emirates Stadium, writes Stewart Coggin.

Samir Nasri's outstanding third and a breakaway goal from Emmanuel Eboue completed the scoring and put the Gunners through to the quarter-finals with a 6-2 aggregate win.

Bendtner made up for some poor misses at the weekend against Burnley, and Wenger was pleased to see the 22-year-old back on the goal trail.

very quickly

"It shows you how football can change for a player very quickly," he said. "In three days it goes quickly up and quickly down.

"But it shows you that he had not lost the confidence as he came back tonight with the same focus and belief. It is one of his strengths as well, the confidence level remains relatively stable."

Wenger revealed that Bendtner was lucky to complete his hat-trick as he was the third designated penalty taker behind Nasri and Andrey Arshavin who had been substituted by that point in the match.

The Frenchman was delighted to see Arsenal control the match against a Porto side who provided little resistance apart from a brief period of pressure after the break.

inferior position

"We controlled the game and played our fluent football and had a positive start with the early goals which gave us the belief," he said.

"They had one or two chances early in the second half when we were not focused enough but overall we controlled the game, scored great goals and were good to watch. We did what we liked to do, won with style and always went forward in a convincing way."

Wenger was asked in the post-match press conference whether he would like to face Manchester United or Chelsea in the quarter-finals, considering the Gunners have lost every match to their title rivals this season.

"We do not choose Man Utd or Chelsea," he added. "But if I say we absolutely do not want to play an English team, we put ourselves in an inferior position from the start.

"I believe maybe it is a good opportunity if we get them to show we can do well. If we get them we can't do worse than we did in the championship, we can only do better."