Arsenal, Bilbao win tickets to Champions League group stage

A moment of unexpected brilliance from new signing Alexis Sanchez was enough to help Arsenal overcome Besiktas, while Bilbao fought back to beat Napoli to qualify for the group stage.

Arsenal struggled to get into the Champions League group stage

The play-off fate has once again helped Arsenal to be in the Champions League group stage this season. The Gunners beat Besiktas 1-0 in a match where their performance was still not really convincing.

Like in the match against Everton last weekend, coach Arsene Wenger arranged Alexis Sanchez to play as the highest striker in Arsenal's attack. Almost throughout the first half, the new Chilean player was still unable to have the desired coordination with his new teammates, including the "king of passing" Mesut Oezil.

VIDEO: Arsenal 1-0 Besiktas

The home team's stalemate was partly due to the Turkish visitors' disciplined defensive counter-attacking style. Besiktas players even gave Arsenal fans a scare with two falls in the Gunners' penalty area. Luckily for the home team,The referee did not blow the penalty.in both of those controversial situations.

Arsenal were even luckier when they scored when everyone thought the first half would end 0-0. In the 45+1 minute, Jack Wilshere passed the ball to Oezil, the ball did not reach Wilshere but fell right into Sanchez's path. The former Barcelona star finished decisively, breaking the deadlock.

In the second half, Arsenal created more scoring chances but missed them all. The Gunners also made things difficult for themselves in the last 15 minutes when Mathieu Debuchy received a second yellow card in the 75th minute. However, Arsenal still protected their fragile advantage.

At the same time, on Bilbao's field, the visitors Napoli were the team that took the lead. Marek Hamsik opened the score in the 47th minute with a left-footed shot from just outside the penalty area. The door to the group stage had just opened for Napoli, but no one expected it to be quickly slammed shut.

In less than 15 minutes (from minute 61 to minute 74), consecutive mistakes by Napoli's defense caused them to receive 3 goals in a row. Aritz Aduriz (2 goals) and Ibai Gomez took full advantage of these mistakes to help Bilbao win 3-1.

The biggest win in this round belonged to Leverkusen. The Bundesliga representative crushed Copenhagen 4-0 to win the right to continue with a very convincing aggregate score of 7-2.

Notably, Leverkusen still showed a fast playing style, winning quickly like in the victory over Dortmund last weekend (a match in which they only needed… 9 seconds to open the score). Facing Copenhagen, Leverkusen opened the score in the 2nd minute and led 2-0 after only 7 minutes.

SPECIFIC RESULTS

Arsenal- Besiktas: 1-0 (first leg 0-0)

Bilbao- Napoli: 3-1 (1-1)

Leverkusen- Copenhagen: 4-0 (3-2)

Malmo- Salzburg: 3-0 (1-2)

Ludogorets- Steaua Bucharest: 1-0 (0-1, pen 6-5)

According to Bongdaplus