EUROPA League
ARSENAL’S EUROPA LEAGUE WIN HERALDS FANS RETURN TO TOP LEVEL FOOTBALL IN ENGLAND
For the first time in 270 days, fans were back inside a Premier League ground as Arsenal welcomed 2,000 supporters into the Emirates for Thursday’s (Dec 3) routine 4-1 Europa League win over Rapid Vienna.
The sparse crowd in a 60,000 capacity stadium, were well distanced between two stands and in high spirits despite the Gunners’ poor form of late in the English top-flight.
Outside the ground fans held up a banner reading: “Home at last, Thank you NHS” in tribute to those working on the front line battling coronavirus in the health service.
Arsenal’s last home match with a crowd was back in March prior to a three-month stoppage of the sport due to the pandemic.
Since returning in June, top-flight football has been played behind closed doors with Arsenal fans missing out on seeing their side win the FA Cup and Community Shield at Wembley.
“It’s been a long nine months since the last game,” said Javed Singh. “I’m excited, it’s a bit of a dead rubber game but good to be back in the stadium. Just great to see a game in person.”
Despite Arsenal having already booked their place in the Europa League knockout stages, demand from fans to be one of the lucky few back through the gates crashed the club website on Saturday morning.
“It’s one of those games you will look back on that we were the first ones in the stadium,” said Dan Anderson, who attended the game with his brother as normal.
“It’s just getting back to normal. You work hard all week and to have that reward to be able to go to a game at the weekend or at night is what you want.”
However, it was not a return to normality for everyone. Pubs that would typically be crammed with fans on matchday around the stadium remained shut with London still under tier two restrictions meaning alcohol cannot be served without food.
Restrictions remain even tighter in other parts of England in Tier three such as Manchester and Birmingham where fans remain shut out.
“Football is all about you, the fans – we have missed you and we are so happy to be welcoming you back,” said Arsenal skipper Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang on a video played before kick-off.
Club mascot Gunnersaurus was also back after the controversy that saw the club employee, Jerry Quy, who played the role since 1993, let go amid cost-cutting measures before Arsenal midfielder Mesut Ozil stepped in to cover his salary.
Playing an entire season without crowds would cost Premier League clubs an estimated £700 million (S$1.2 billion) and the need to make the most of the fans’ return was evident with Arsenal’s “Armoury” club shop reopened.
The atmosphere inspired a much-changed side on the field as manager Mikel Arteta looked ahead of Sunday’s North London derby against Premier League leaders Tottenham.
Spurs were the target of the first chants once the action got underway, showing some things never change no matter the circumstances.
There was soon something to cheer as Alexandre Lacazette smashed in a stunning long-range strike top open the scoring on 10 minutes and ran to celebrate in front of the fans.
Pablo Mari quickly headed home a second on his first appearance since March.
Eddie Nketiah added a third before half-time before Kohya Kitagawa’s consolation for the Austrians drew pantomime boos from the crowd.
Substitute Emile Smith Rowe rounded off the scoring on a night that will be best remembered for what happened off the field.
-AFP
Manchester United manager Ruben Amorim defended under-fire goalkeeper Andre Onana following the Cameroonian’s costly mistakes in his side’s 2-2 draw at Olympique Lyonnais in their Europa League quarter-final first leg on Thursday.
Onana allowed Thiago Almada’s free kick to squirm past him in the Groupama Stadium and was also at fault for Rayan Cherki’s last-gasp equaliser that denied United victory.
Since the start of last season, no Premier League club’s goalkeeper has made more errors leading to goals being conceded in all competitions than Onana.
“It can happen, if you play football, you play a lot of games, you can make mistakes,” Amorim said. “If you look at the season, I make more mistakes than them during these last games and these last months.
“The other thing is we have one more game to change everything and that should be our focus.
“The best thing is to look at the goals, all the actions that Andre had in the game, this is the best way to help any player, it’s to focus on the game, what happened, what we need to improve.”
United nonetheless remain unbeaten in this season’s Europa League — the only side to do so this term — after goals from Leny Yoro and Joshua Zirkzee put them on course for a potential victory.
The team, who are 13th in the English Premier League standings, still go into next week’s second leg in Manchester as favourites to book a spot in the last four.
“It was an entertaining game,” Amorim added. “We had some difficulty in the first half trying to press, because Lyon played in a different way. Then, in the middle of the first half and especially the second, we controlled the game.
“The second leg will be a different game. At home, our fans want us to press all the time.”
-Reuters
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Manchester United will be without defender Harry Maguire and midfielder Manuel Ugarte for Thursday’s Europa League last-16 clash with Real Sociedad, coach Ruben Amorim said, as he seeks to salvage an otherwise dire season.
The pair were left out of an already depleted squad after picking up injuries in last weekend’s penalty shootout defeat to Fulham that dumped them out of the FA Cup to compound the misery of lying 14th in the Premier League.
“We are being careful with them because at the moment we cannot afford to lose any more players for a long time,” Amorim told a press conference on Wednesday before the Europa League first leg game in Spain.
“We are taking care of them at Carrington (training ground) and they cannot play this game because it will be a greater risk.”
The coach, who joined United in November, stressed the importance of balancing youth development with the needs of the squad during a worsening injury crisis.
“I’m trying to cope with everything. When I do my squad, I’m trying to think about every aspect, of the formation of the (new) kids, of the squad and not if it will look really well with the fans and the media,” Amorim said.
Altay Bayindir, Tom Heaton, Jonny Evans, Kobbie Mainoo, Luke Shaw and Mason Mount remain on individual rehabilitation programmes.
Lisandro Martinez, who tore his anterior cruciate ligament, and Amad Diallo, who suffered an ankle ligament injury in training, are also sidelined.
-Reuters
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Manchester United captain Bruno Fernandes scored a last-gasp winner to secure a 2-1 victory over Rangers in the Europa League group stage on Thursday and Tottenham Hotspur captain Son Heung-min struck twice in his team’s 3-2 win at Hoffenheim.
United climbed to fourth in the standings on 15 points going into the last round of matches, in a strong position to reach the knockout phase along with Spurs who are sixth with 14 points.
The English side broke the deadlock early in the second half when Rangers goalkeeper Jack Butland misjudged a Christian Eriksen corner, sending the ball into his own net.
Rangers fought back with an equaliser from substitute Cyril Dessers two minutes from time before Fernandes struck in added time to give United all three points.
In Germany, James Maddison opened the scoring for Spurs in the third minute and Son doubled the lead in a first half the visitors dominated.
Hoffenheim pulled one back in the 68th minute through Anton Stach’s counter-attack goal. Son restored Spurs’ two-goal lead in the 77th minute before the hosts’ David Mokwa scored to give his side late hope but the game ended in a narrow win for the English side.
Lazio stayed top of the standings with a commanding 3-1 home victory over Real Sociedad to become the first team to qualify for the round of 16.
Mario Gila struck after five minutes and when Sociedad’s Aihen Munoz was shown a second yellow card on the half-hour mark, Lazio immediately seized the advantage.
Mattia Zaccagni quickly doubled the lead and Taty Castellanos effectively ended the match with a third for the hosts. Ander Barrenetxea scored a late consolation goal for Sociedad.
Eintracht Frankfurt moved closer to securing a top-eight spot with a 2-0 home win over Hungarian side Ferencvaros thanks to second-half goals from Can Uzun and Hugo Ekitike. They are second in the standings with 16 points, three ahead of ninth-placed Galatasaray.
A late goal from Troy Parrott gave AZ Alkmaar a 1-0 home win over AS Roma and Olympiacos earned a 1-0 victory at Porto thanks to a late goal from Ayoub El Kaabi.
Dutch side Alkmaar can still reach the top eight with 11 points sitting in 14th place while Roma’s nine points place them 21st, close to the bottom of the playoff section.
Fenerbahce and Olympique Lyonnais played out an intense goalless draw in Istanbul, leaving the French side in a strong position to progress to fifth place in the group on 14 points.
-Reuters
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