English Premier League giants Arsenal have registered a narrow 1-0 win over FC Zurich in their last match at the Europa League.
Kieran Tierney’s first-half goal was enough for the Gunners to register another victory in the continental competition.
Having lost their last Europa League match against Ditch side PSV, Arsenal needed a win to avoid the playoff round. They were facing a Zurich side who still had the chance to qualify for the Conference League.
Mikel Arteta started the match with a 4-3-3 setup. Aaron Ramsdale kept his place under the bar. Benjamin White, Ron Holding, Gabriel Magalhaes, and Kieran Tierney formed the backline. Fabio Vieira, Mohamed Elneny, and Albert Sambi Lokonga were the midfielders. Reiss Nelson and Edward Nketiah started on the wings. Meanwhile, Gabriel Jesus was given the duty to lead the lines.
Tierney’s Goal Gives Arsenal Narrow Win
The home side made a great start to the game. The first real chance for Arsenal fell to left-back Kieran Tierney. After two blocked shots, a loose ball reached Kieran Tierney. The left-back did no mistake and powered his volley past Zurich custodian Yanick Brecher to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead.
Soon after that, English forward Nketiah was found by midfielder Elneney at the edge of the box. Nketiash then unleashed a brilliant strike which was well saved by Zurich’s keeper.
Arsenal had a golden chance to double their lead. After a flick from Jesus, Nketiah passed to Vieira at a very dangerous position, The Portuguese midfielder’s shot however was unintentionally blocked by Gabriel Jesus himself.
The Gunners kept on the pressure on the Swiss side but they failed to increase their lead before the half time. Just after the restart, Yanick Brecher made another big save to deny Gabriel Jesus from close range.
From this point, Zurich came out of its shell and started to create chances for the forwards. In the 67th minute of the game, Guerrero found the back of the net for the away side. The goal however did not strand after VAR confirmed an Offside infringement.
Zurich kept on pressuring Arsenal’s defense and created a lot of big opportunities. However, the Swiss team failed to take any of those chances as the match ended 1-0 in favour of Mikel Arteta’s slide.
After this victory, Arsenal finished at the top of group A with 15 points from six matches. The Gunners evaded the playoff round and will have to wait till 24th February to know their opponent in the round of 16.
Meanwhile, FC Zurich finished at the bottom of the table. They managed to win only one match and gathered three points from six matches.
