Europa League: Round of 16 – Second-Leg

ARSENAL 0
OLYMPIAKOS 1 (El-Arabi 51, Ba sent off 82)
Arsenal win 3-2 on aggregate

THE beauty of a knockout competition is that, in theory, any team, even a stray underdog, can win it.

But how many Arsenal fans truly believe that the same side that continued their sluggish season by losing 1-0 at home against Olympiakos tonight (Thursday) will be crowned Europa League champions come May?

Perhaps the quarter-final and semi-final draws which take place in Nyon, Switzerland, tomorrow (Friday) will be a game changer – somehow waking the Arsenal players up from their slumber, and making them realise the opportunity that lies in front of them.

Mikel Arteta certainly knows that he has work to do after watching the Gunners survive a scare at the Emirates Stadium to beat the Greek champions 3-2 on aggregate.

“We can’t use any excuses. We had fresh players in the side,” admitted the Arsenal boss. “We started the game really well but then we had a lack of stability. We need to keep the ball and play some passes together and not just keep giving the ball away in transitions.

“With their goal, we gave them some belief, which you cannot give to an opponent. We’ll get better. When it comes to decision-making and execution, it’s a little bit more difficult.”

And Arsenal will have to get better. Much, much better.

The latest goal they gifted Olympiakos capped a performance that on another night would have seen the Gunners crash out of Europe once more.

Dani Ceballos gave the ball away minutes into the second-half and it was quickly passed to Youssef El-Arabi, who produced a stepover to give himself some space in the box before unleashing a shot that took a huge deflection off Gabriel to leave Bernd Leno wrong-footed.

You would have thought that the Arsenal defenders would have been keeping an extra special eye on El-Arabi considering he scored in the first-leg, and netted the extra-time winner that dumped them out of the tournament last season.

Even before El-Arabi’s opening goal the Gunners had been guilty of yet more poor defending but somehow managed to get away with it.

Olympiakos should have taken the lead inside 20 minutes when a long hoof upfield by Jose Sa caught the Gunners backline napping. El-Arabi raced clear and smashed a powerful shot goalwards that Leno did well to block with his leg.

To be fair to Arteta, the home side would have enjoyed a much more routine evening had Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang remembered his shooting boots.

Midway through the first-half the striker was played in by Ceballos, but somehow managed to miss the target from 12-yards. The Arsenal skipper didn’t fare any better late on when he again raced clear on goal, only to put his effort wide of the far post.

Olympiakos continued to look bright going forward, but once Ousseynou Ba was sent off for two bookings within 10 seconds of one another – for fouling Gabriel Martinelli and then throwing the ball at him – their glimmer of hope quickly faded.

“We had a tough opponent, so I’m really happy to be through,” added Arteta. “Sometimes we have to be fair with ourselves – we were nowhere near the levels we could be.

“We were unstable with the ball and we gave it away. It’s impossible when you give the ball away to have any structure.”

Arsenal: Leno, Bellerin (Chambers, 82), Luiz, Gabriel, Tierney, Elneny (Partey, 57), Xhaka, Ceballos (Odegaard, 57), Smith Rowe (Martinelli, 81), Pepe, Aubameyang
Substitutes not used: Ryan, Okonkwo, Cedric, Holding, Mari, Nelson, Nketiah, Lacazette

Olympiakos: Sa, Sokratis, Ba, Holebas, Androutsos (Randjelovic, 62), M’Vila, Camara, Reabciuk (Lala, 84), Masouras (Bruma, 63), El-Arabi, Fortounis (Bouchalakis, 84)
Substitutes not used: Karargyris, Tzolakis, Drager, Vrousai, Sourlis