Arsenal won their final Europa League group stage match 4-2 against Dundalk to ensure a 100 percent winning record as they head for the knockout stage.
Mikel Arteta named a fresh XI for the trip to Dublin which included a raft of youngsters in his squad, and the young lads took an early lead through Eddie Nketiah in the 12th minute of the match.
Mohamed Elneny made it two with a gem of a shot, but Dundalk pulled one back through Jordan Flores before the game went into half time break.
Both sides took a while to get going in the second half but Joe Willock and Folarin Balogun added two more before Sean Hoare’s late header added another moment to savour in Dundalk’s final game of the season.
https://youtu.be/vkPqfaEK6cE
Arsenal already sealed the top spot in Group B and have now won six consecutive major European matches for the first time since November 2005. The North London side are also now nine unbeaten on the road in Europe for the first time.
Stats and facts from the match (Backed by Opta)
- All three of Mohamed Elneny’s goals for Arsenal have been scored in European competition (1 in CL, 2 in EL), with two of those strikes coming outside the box.
- Eddie Nketiah scored his fifth goal of the season for Arsenal against Dundalk – he is now Arsenal’s top scorer in all competitions this season.
- Arsenal have scored twice as many goals in the Europa League this season (20 in 6 games) as they have in the Premier League (10 in 11).
Tottenham 2-0 Antwerp: Carlos Vinicius and Giovani Lo Celso scored as Spurs got their revenge and top group
Carlos Vinicius and Giovani Lo Celso both scored in the second half as Tottenham top their Europa League group with a comfortable 2-0 win over Royal Antwerp.
Spurs needed the victory to secure the top spot and a favorable route when the last-32 draw gets underway next week, and comfortably saw out the three points against their Belgian visitors, who did not manage a shot on target across 90 minutes.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Px2F8zgKP50
Elsewhere, Leicester City joined Arsenal and Tottenham in the last 32 after a convincing 2-0 win against Greek side AEK Athens at the King Power Stadium.
The win also put the top of their group just as their English counterparts Arsenal and Tottenham Hotspur.
Cengiz Under opened his account for the Foxes with a powerful, unstoppable volley that nearly took the net off the AEK goal before Harvey Barnes’ deflected strike put the hosts into an insurmountable lead.
Leicester controlled the game from start to finish, preventing AEK from registering a single attempt on goal on route to a routine victory that sees them secure a seeding in Monday’s round-of-32 draw.
UEFA Europa League Matchday 6 results
Thursday 10th December
- BSC Young Boys Bern 2-1 CFR Cluj-Napoca
- Bayer Leverkusen 4-0 Slavia Prague
- CSKA Sofia 3-1 Roma
- Dundalk 2-4 Arsenal
- Hapoel Beer-Sheva 1-0 Nice
- Lech Poznan 0-2 Rangers
- Napoli 1-1 Real Sociedad
- PAOK Salonika 0-0 Granada
- PSV Eindhoven 4-0 Omonia Nicosia
- Rapid Wien 2-2 Molde
- Rijeka 2-1 AZ Alkmaar
- Standard Liege 2-2 Benfica
- Braga 2-0 FC Zorya Luhansk
- Celtic 3-2 Lille
- Dinamo Zagreb 3-1 CSKA Moscow
- Hoffenheim 4-1 AA Gent
- Leicester City 2-0 AEK Athens
- Ludogorets 1-3 Linz ASK
- Maccabi Tel Aviv 1-0 Sivasspor
- RZ Pellets WAC 1-0 Feyenoord
- Slovan Liberec 0-0 Crvena Zvezda
- Sparta Prague 0-1 AC Milan
- Tottenham Hotspur 2-0 Antwerp
