Arsenal and Chelsea closed in on the Europa League last four on Thursday after the Gunners saw off highly-fancied Napoli 2-0 at the Emirates, while Marco Alonso’s late header earned Maurizio Sarri’s side a hard-fought win at Slavia Prague.
Unai Emery’s Arsenal hold a healthy advantage going into next week’s second leg thanks to a fine early strike from Juventus-bound Aaron Ramsey and an unfortunate Kalidou Koulibaly own goal midway through the first half.
Chelsea meanwhile escaped from Eden Arena after a bitty display that saw Kepa Arrizabalaga have to make some fine saves to keep the Czechs out before Alonso nodded home Willian’s pinpoint cross four minutes from time to seal a 1-0 win.
Arsenal got its deserved opener with 14 minutes on the clock, Ramsay waltzing in at the end of a beautiful passing move to calmly stroke home Ainsley Maitland-Niles’s neat lay-off.
Napoli was completely out of sorts, barely able to get the ball out of their own half at times, and 10 minutes later the Gunners doubled their lead.
Former Sampdoria midfielder Lucas Torreira won possession in midfield and charged towards goal before letting off a weak shot that flicked off Koulibaly and flew past a bamboozled Alex Meret in the Napoli goal.
The results :
(Quarterfinals, first-leg) : Arsenal 2 (Ramsey 14, Koulibaly 25-og) bt Napoli 0; Slavia Prague 0 bt Chelsea 1 (Alonso 86); Benfica 4 (Felix 21, 43, 54, Dias 50) bt Eintracht Frankfurt 2 (Jovic 40, Paclencia 72); Villarreal 1 (Cazorla 36) lost to Valencia 3 (Guedes 6, 90+3, Wass 90) .
