According to Unai Emery – Arsenal’s Manager – “Arsenal’s Europa League quarter-final tie against Napoli is still 50-50,” even as his side won the first leg fixture in Emirates Stadium.
Aron Ramsey – who is joining Juventus on a free transfer at the end of the season – put the hosts on the scoreboard as he converted a beautiful pass from Ainsley Maitland-Niles to finish the incredible teamwork.
Lucas Torreira seemed to terrorize the Italians as he contributed to the second goal. After taking a shot at the goal post, Kalidou Koulibaly then scored an own goal as he deflected the shot.
Alex Meret was the wall that Napoli needed to stop more goals from pouring in – that would have been a real blow to the Italians.
Currently in second place in Serie A, Napoli will host the second leg next Thursday at the San Paolo Stadium.
Arsenal’s manager – Emery Unai said, “The first leg was very important to take a good result, we deserved to win, but we know it is going to be very difficult there.
“Their performances at home are usually very strong. We will plan to win the match, but we need to have a lot of respect for them. It is still 50-50. Our challenge is to be competitive away. Sometimes away we lose the spirit we have at home.”
However, Carlo Ancelotti, Napoli’s manager has said that his confidence of his team progressing to the last four is still unwavering. He said,
“The result is difficult to change but we have 90 minutes left.”
Although winning the contest by two goals to nil, the only downside of that performance is that they didn’t steal the victory with more goals to totally kill the tie off.
The Gunners continued pressuring their rivals for a third goal in the last 45 minutes as Maitland-Niles expertly kept denying them a lot of opportunities. But Arsenal’s manager hopes their dominance at Emirates is enough to take them into the semi-finals.