Chapter 44: Europa League Group Stage 3

On October 15, in the 8th round of the 2016/2017 Premier League, Arsenal played against Swansea at home.

In this game, Arsenal defeated Swansea with a score of 3:2.

But the whole process was not easy.

Arsenal scored two goals in 30 minutes in the first half and gained a certain advantage.

But in the 42nd minute, Wilshere made some dangerous moves in the penalty area when retreating to defend, resulting in Arsenal being awarded a penalty and a yellow card.

Wilshere, who was carrying a yellow card, still couldn't hold back his temper. In the 70th minute of the second half, he kicked the opponent player Jack Cole, causing two yellows to turn into one red.

Arsenal had to take a more conservative defensive posture when they were one man short.

On the other hand, Swansea pressed forward in a big way. With one more player, their offense became much smoother.

Spanish player Borja Baston shot a bow shot on the penalty area line and accurately hit the upper right corner of Arsenal's goal, equalizing the score.

In the 89th minute, when Arsenal was retreating to defend, they found a chance to counterattack.

Lukaku dribbled the ball all the way to the opponent's rib area, and his left foot made a rapid arc to fly to the opponent's penalty area.

Lukaku got rid of the opponent's defender in the penalty area, rushed all the way to the back point, headed the ball into the goal, and got the lore.

In the end, Arsenal won the game 3:2 Swansea without any danger.

Wilshere's impulse almost caused some trouble for Arsenal, but Mourinho did not refute him.

After all, in addition to the first foul, the second foul was for the ball, but the leg was raised too high.

Of course, the suspicion that Wilshere deliberately waited for others cannot be ruled out.

But Mourinho still did not reprimand, after all, it was largely him who ordered Wilshere to play like this.

Lukaku is a reputation!

And Wilshere is now going to achieve his own "bad" reputation!

Since it is a bad reputation, then you can't leave the red card!

Fortunately, the referee was more lenient. Two yellow cards turned into one red card and a direct red card are two different concepts.

Without additional punishment, Wilshere was only suspended for one game.

That is to say, Wilshere will not be able to travel with the team in the next round.

Fortunately, Arsenal's opponent in the next round is the newly promoted Middlesbrough, which is not a strong opponent.

Suspension in different schedules also has different meanings.

At least from the current situation, the cost of this red card is not too high.

After the league ended, Arsenal quickly prepared for the Europa League.

The current points of the entire Europa League Group A are as follows.

1: Fenerbahce, 1 win, 1 draw, 0 losses, 4 points.

2: Solya, 1 win, 1 draw, 0 losses, 4 points.

3: Arsenal, 1 win, 0 draws, 1 loss, 3 points.

4: Feyenoord, 0 wins, 0 draws, 2 losses, 0 points.

After two rounds of games, Arsenal actually appeared in the third place in the group points, which is extremely surprising.

Even many media are reporting this.

However, considering that Arsenal upset Fenerbahce in the first round of the group stage, this is not impossible.

And Fenerbahce was tied by Solya.

For Arsenal, they only need to win the third round to get back on track.

And Arsenal fans also firmly believe that Arsenal will not lose any game.

On October 21, Solya Club came to London to prepare for the match against Arsenal.

Even though Arsenal's current situation in the standings is not too good, they are still the most threatening opponent for the teams in this group.

Solya just tied Fenerbahce away from home, and their morale is pretty good.

But the moment they entered the Emirates Stadium, they still felt a huge sense of oppression.

The cheers of the tsunami made them feel suffocated.

Looking at Arsenal, all the main players played, and the pressure was full.

The captains of both sides shook hands and chose sides.

Arsenal took the lead in attacking.

The starting lineups of both teams are as follows:

Arsenal (4-2-3-1):

Goalkeeper: Martinez.

Defenders: Bellerin, Jimenez, Hummels, Robertson.

Midfielders: Aubameyang, Kante, Wilshere, Lukay, Mane.

Forward: Lukaku.

Sorya (4-4-1-1):

Goalkeeper: Shevchenko.

Defenders: Sobol, Foster, Sivakov, Kamenjuka.

Midfielders: Petryak, Chaykovsky, Grichishin, Karavayev, Liubenovich.

Forward: Kurach.

"Zorya's head coach Verni Dubu once again deployed a 4-4-1-1 formation. They used this formation to tie Fenerbahce in the last round, and now they are using the same formation to replicate the situation at the Emirates Stadium. However, Arsenal is not Fenerbahce. Facing a complete Arsenal, can Zorya withstand the opponent's attack?"

From the tone of the commentator, it can be heard that they are not optimistic about Zorya.

The last time Fenerbahce beat Arsenal, a big reason was that Luka was not in the team, and Arsenal as a whole encountered a state problem.

But now Arsenal's state has recovered, and Luka has also returned to Arsenal.

The return of the backbone has made Arsenal's overall competitive ability show an upward trend again.

Under such circumstances, let alone Zorya, Fenerbahce is also in trouble.

However, Zorya still has certain expectations.

After the game started, they even took the initiative to complete a sneak attack and took the lead.

However, after this attack, Arsenal took control of the ball, and under the leadership of Lukay, they slowly eroded the rhythm and constantly put pressure on Zorya.

Soon, Arsenal pressed to the opponent's penalty area.

Then they kept kicking high balls.

Lukaku was like Tigger, constantly jumping in the penalty area and constantly competing for the top.

With Lukaku's tonnage, he put a huge pressure on Zorya's back line.

Not to mention, Aubameyang and Mane were also watching from the side.

Wilshere and Lukay also came forward, ready to shoot from a distance at any time near the penalty area line.

Kante also controlled the landing point in the back area, and the overall formation's forward pressure made Zorya extremely uncomfortable.

All they could do was to keep clearing the siege and then kick the ball out of the field.

They couldn't even pass the ball effectively, and on average they were intercepted or intercepted in less than three passes.

Sometimes, they even lost the ball even if they were carrying the ball.

"This is the difference in strength!"

Paul Merson shook his head.

He had to admit that the gap in strength between Solya and Arsenal was too big.

Arsenal's ability to counterattack was already excellent, and they were even more accurate in facing Solya.

Not to mention Lekai, even Mane and Aubameyang got a few good balls and counterattacked on the spot.

However, Solya's resilience was also very good, relying on the iron wall to constantly block Arsenal's attack.

But pure defense can't last long. In the 34th minute, Wilshere pretended to shoot twice in a row near the penalty area line. After pulling away, he lightly knocked the ball to the back point in the opposite direction with the back of his foot.

Mane received the ball and shot, and the ball hit the opponent's defender's calf and bounced to the middle.

After a fight, Lukaku poked the ball into the opponent's goal in the chaos.

Arsenal scored the leading goal.

This goal made Sorya lose his temper.

Before, they could still hold on with the hope of a draw, but after scoring, they were a little overwhelmed.

They hadn't considered the problem of scoring.

After all, it was too difficult to score at the Emirates Stadium, at Arsenal's home!

In the second half, Arsenal continued to exert their strength.

When Sorya was almost depressed.

Lekai passed the ball straight to Aubameyang who suddenly advanced.

The timing of this straight pass was just right. In order to create space for Aubameyang, Lukaku even withdrew from the penalty area to confuse the opponent's defense.

And Aubameyang did not disappoint their expectations.

A powerful shot opened Sorya's goal again.

Arsenal 2:0 Sorya.

This score basically determined the result of the game.

Then, both sides made substitutions.

Sorya replaced three offensive players, and Mourinho started to defend again.

He would not give Sorya any chance.

Sorya wanted to score, but facing Arsenal's iron wall, they had no chance at all.

And Arsenal also clearly told them what defense is!