Ostersunds FK 0 Arsenal 3
When Mesut Ozil signed for Arsenal in 2013 he probably didn’t envisage playing Thursday night football in Ostersund, the 22nd most populous city in Sweden.
He would have had in mind glamorous Champions League ties in Barcelona, Milan or Munich but such has been Arsenal’s steady decline in recent seasons that the German midfielder spent last night entertaining 9,165 fans at the Ostersund Arena on an artificial pitch in sub-zero temperatures.
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For a World Cup winner, this is as bad as it gets. To his credit, Ozil put in a dominant display against the Swedes, controlling the midfield and adding Arsenal’s third goal after Nacho Monreal – and an own goal – gave the visitors a 2-0 half-time lead. The hosts fluffed a chance to get on the scoresheet late on when Tom Pettersson missed a penalty.
Arsene Wenger fielded a strong side for the Europa League last-32 clash, aware that the competition offers the Gunners the only realistic opportunity of qualifying for next season’s Champions League.
Eight points adrift of the top four places in the Premier League, Arsenal have to win Europe’s secondary competition if they want to qualify for the showpiece tournament.
“I think we adapted quite well to the [artificial] pitch,” said Wenger. “They were maybe a bit cautious at the start and we took advantage of it and took control of the game once we opened the scoring.”
With Arsenal already out of the FA Cup, they have this weekend off, allowing the squad to rest and Wenger to contemplate his starting XI for the second leg at the Emirates next Thursday.
“I don’t think I will rest [players], I will try to win the game again,” said Wenger. “Maybe rotate, play the players who didn’t play and rest one or two who played.”
The Frenchman will have been relieved that his squad came through the fixture unscathed, but while the likes of Ozil, Mohamed Elneny and Henrikh Mkhitaryan impressed, the manager won’t have drawn much satisfaction from the performance of Danny Welbeck.
The former England striker made a rare start in the absence of the cup-tied Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and the injured Alexandre Lacazette but Welbeck struggled to find any rhythm on the artificial pitch.
“The pitch was a bit hard and we knew coming here that it was going to be a bit difficult,” said Welbeck. “Obviously with it being a 4G pitch and having had so many injuries in the past I made sure I did my rehab really well. You hear stories about the dangers of playing on 4G pitches after knee injuries but I did my warm-up and I was alright.”
In the other first-leg matches, Celtic beat Zenit St Petersburg 1-0 thanks to a superb goal by Callum McGregor. Napoli lost 3-1 at home to RB Leipzig while AC Milan won 3-0 away at Ludogorets Razgrad. Borussia Dortmund’s Michy Batshuayi netted a brace as the Bundesliga side came back from 2-1 down to beat Atalanta 3-2.
Europa League round of 32 first-leg results
- FC Astana 1 Sporting Lisbon 3
- Borussia Dortmund 3 Atalanta 2
- Ludogorets Razgrad 0 AC Milan 3
- Marseille 3 Sporting Braga 0
- Nice 2 Lokomotiv Moscow 3
- Ostersunds FK 0 Arsenal 3
- Real Sociedad 2 FC Red Bull Salzburg 2
- Spartak Moscow 1 Athletic Bilbao 3
- AEK Athens 1 Dynamo Kiev 1
- Celtic 1 Zenit St Petersburg 0
- FC Copenhagen 1 Atletico Madrid 4
- Steaua Bucharest 1 Lazio 0
- Lyon 3 Villarreal 1
- Napoli 1 RB Leipzig 3
- Partizan Belgrade 1 Viktoria Plzen 1
