Arsenal destroy BATE with young artillery
Although coach Arsene Wenger fielded a team of reserve players and young talents, Arsenal still easily crushed BATE Borisov with a score of 6-0.
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GOAL Arsenal: Debuchy (11'); Walcott (37'); Wilshere (42'); Polyakov (own goal 51'); Giroud (pen 64'); Elneny (76') |
The match between Arsenal and BATE in the final round of Group H of the Europa League is just a formality for the Gunners because they have already advanced as group winners. Therefore, coach Arsene Wenger has fielded a team consisting entirely of reserve players and young talents. As for BATE, they are not very interested in the away match at Emirates Stadium because they are almost eliminated. To get a ticket to the knockout round, BATE needs to beat Arsenal and wait for the remaining match of Group H to end in a draw.
With such a nature, the match was very open from the first minutes. Thanks to their superior class, Arsenal quickly took the lead. In the 11th minute, Theo Walcott received the ball on the right wing, entered the penalty area and was tackled by a BATE defender. Mathieu Debuchy rushed in and fired a powerful left-footed shot into the far corner of the BATE goal, opening the score. This was only Debuchy's second goal for Arsenal. The first goal came more than 3 years ago.
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| Debuchy celebrates opening goal |
After opening the scoring, Arsenal continued to put pressure on their opponents. In the 37th minute, they doubled the gap thanks to the captain of the match, Walcott. Danny Welbeck dribbled into the BATE penalty area and was blocked by the away team's defender. The ball bounced right to Walcott and the English midfielder easily scored against BATE.
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| Walcott doubles Arsenal's lead |
Just 5 minutes after Walcott's goal, Jack Wilshere found the BATE net with a decisive cross-angle shot. This was Wilshere's first goal for Arsenal since May 2015. Wilshere's goal shattered BATE's fighting spirit even before the first half ended.
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| Wilshere scores for first time since May 2015 |
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| Giroud scored from the penalty spot in the second half |
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| Elneny makes it 6-0 for Arsenal |
In the second half, Arsenal scored 3 more goals thanks to Olivier Giroud, Mohamed Elneny and an own goal by Denis Polyakov. Destroying BATE, Arsenal ended the Europa League group stage with 13 points after 6 matches. BATE is at the bottom of the table with only 5 points after 6 matches.
Line-up Arsenal: Ospina; Debuchy, Chambers, Holding, Maitland-Niles; Coquelin, Elneny (Willock 78'); Walcott (Nelson 71'), Wilshere, Welbeck (Nketiah 78'); Giroud BATE: Scherbitski; Rios, Polyakov, Milunovic, M. Volodko; Berezkin, Dragun; Gordeichuk, Ivanic (Yablonski 77'), Stasevich (Tuominen 69'); Rodionov (Signevich 56') |
Group H standings
According to Bongdaplus
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