Arsene Wenger’s boys' draw against the Russian club means that they have qualified for the Europa League semi-final. Their 2-2 draw put the Gunners way ahead of their Russian opponents with a 6-3 lead on aggregate.
The goal scoring was kicked off by CSKA Moscow’s Fedor Chalov in the 39 minute. At 20 years old, Chalov became the youngest player to score a European goal against the Gunners since Eliaquim Mangala in September 2009. In the 50th minute, Kirill Nababkin almost made his team draw level with Arsenal on aggregates by scoring the second goal of the game. The goals could have kept coming but Petr Cech saved a free-kick that was taken by Moscow’s Aleksandr Golovin's.
The match stats showed that Arsenal did not have a shot on target for the first 70 minute of the match, so it surprises me that CSKA Moscow allowed them to not only score one, but to level up the game scores.
Danny Welbeck revived his team’s morale by scoring their first goal for the game and their fifth goal on aggregate. This goal made it Welbeck’s tenth goal scored this season. The game picked up for the Gunners and Aaron Ramsey’s finished it off with his goal which came in at the 92nd minute. This solidified his teams spot in the semi-finals.
This what Wenger had to say about the outcome of the match:
“I would like to say we played against a good team, I knew that after the first game.They showed that against tonight. They were mobile, technically good and gave us many problems.”
Overall, In 2018, Arsene Wenger’s side have conceded 31 goals in all competitions. This is three goals more than any other Premier League side has conceded in the same period. They are now the fifth English team to reach the semi-finals of the Europa League.
