Arsenal win convincingly in Europa League semi-final first leg

With a 2-goal difference, the London "gunners" are taking a huge advantage in winning a ticket to the final of the Europa League 2018 - 2019.

Arsenal are losing ground in the race for the top 4 in the Premier League (ranked 5th). This is the reason why the "gunners" will try with 200% determination to crush Valencia in the first leg to open the door to the final.

Diakhaby opened the scoring for Valencia against Arsenal. Photo: Reuters

Despite playing with a deep formation, Valencia were the first to have a dangerous opportunity. In the 8th minute, Dani Parejo made a difficult pass from the flank into the middle for Rodrigo, Kolasinac in a defensive situation almost cleared the ball into his own net.

In the 11th minute of the match, Arsenal's defense was lax, causing them to concede a goal. From a corner kick, the ball was hung into the home team's penalty area. Sokratis failed to keep up with Rodrigo, allowing the Valencia striker to head the ball to Diakhaby, who headed the ball past Petr Cech at close range to open the scoring. 0 - 1 for Valencia.

Trailing behind their Spanish opponents, the Gunners were not deterred, equalizing just 7 minutes after conceding.

Striker duo Lacazette and Aubameyang shined with 3 goals against Valencia. Photo: Getty

Having equalized, Arsenal played more and more excitedly after Lacazette's equalizer.

In the 27th minute, Arsenal took the lead. From Xhaka's pass, Lacazette headed the ball from close range. Goalkeeper Neto touched the ball but could not block it. In this situation, Roncaglia was the one who made the mistake when he could not keep up with Arsenal's number 9, the score was 2 - 1 for Arsenal.

In the final minutes of the first half, Valencia tried to push their formation to find an equalizer but failed. In the first 45 minutes, the visitors started better and took an early lead. But Arsenal came back strongly with a double from Lacazette, thereby leading 2-1.

Lacazette (red shirt) scored two goals against Valencia. Photo: Getty

Entering the second half, Valencia was the team that started better in the first minutes of the second half. In the 48th minute, Carlos Soler had a pretty strong shot, but the ball did not go into the home team's goal.

Five minutes later, it was Goncalo Guedes' turn to threaten Petr Cech's goal, but the number 7's shot went wide of Arsenal's post.

Valencia had a chance to equalize in the 73rd minute, Gameiro had a very good chance to bring the equalizer for Valencia, but could not beat Petr Cech in a one-on-one situation.

It seemed that the score of 2 - 1 would remain until the end of the match. However, once again Arsenal showed the strength of the home field advantage, right in the last minute of the match, Aubameyang helped Arsenal score a goal to increase the score to 3 - 1. When Kolasinac had an accurate cross for the Gabonese striker to make a decisive kick to bring the third goal for the home team. This was also the last notable situation of the match.

With a 3-1 victory in the first leg, Arsenal is taking a big advantage in winning a ticket to the final of the Europa League season 2018/2019.

Score:

Arsenal: Lacazette (18', 25'), Aubameyang (90');

Valencia:Diakhaby (11')

Results of the remaining semi-final pairs:

Frankfurt 1 – 1 Chelsea.

Line-up:

Arsenal:v1 P. Cech, 5 Soratis, 6 L. Koscielny (Monreal, 82'), 20 S. Mustafi, 31 S. Kolasinac, 10 M. Ozil (Mkhitaryan, 75'), 34 G. 9 A. Lacazette.

Valencia:13 Neto, 24 E. Garay, 4 F. Roncaglia, 5 Gabriel Paulista, 21 C. Piccini, 14 Jose Gaya, 12 M. Diakhaby, 10 Dani Parejo, 7 Goncalo Guedes (Gameiro, 71'), 8 Carlos Soler (Wass, 71'), 19 Rodrigo (Mina, 88')./.