Arsenal beat Qarabag in bizarre Europa League match
Can a match peter out if it never got going in the first place?
Arsenal have strolled to an easy 1-0 win over Qarabag to end their Europa League group campaign unbeaten atop Group E.
Just over 21,000 fans turned up to watch a much-changed Arsenal side barely get out of first gear. The roughly 37,000 fans who decided to stay home hardly missed a thing as Alexandre Lacazette’s 15th-minute strike was one of the only genuine chances on goal all match.
AS IT HAPPENED: Arsenal 1 Qarabag 0
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The result didn’t matter, Arsenal were guaranteed to finish top and Qarabag knew they couldn’t qualify for the knockout rounds.
However, apart from Laurent Koscielny marking his return to first-team action with a solid 70 minutes, manager Unai Emery will have got precious little out of the match.
Emery rang the changes, naming no less than eight teenagers in his matchday squad. However, the match was so lacking in any form of urgency and intensity it is unlikely Spaniard will have learned anything new about his youngsters.
Koscielny made his long-awaited return and Mesut Ozil was given a rare run out at the Emirates, while Nacho Monreal began his injury comeback with a 20 minute cameo.
It was one of Arsenal’s teenagers who had the Gunners’ first chance when 17-year-old Bukayo Saka cut in from the right and had his curling effort pushed away by Vagner in the Qarabag goal.
Lacazette, who was one of the few first-choice players given a run out, gave the Gunners the lead after just 15 minutes. Ozil fed the striker, Lacazette had time to shift the ball on to his right foot and fire the ball low and hard into the net.
Qarabag had a great chance to make immediate amends when Ainsley Maitland-Niles allowed Maksim Medvedev to bare down on goal, but Sokratis made a brilliant sliding intervention to bail out his teammate.
Less than 20 minutes were on the clock, but that spelt the end of the goalmouth action for the first half as the Gunners turned the match into a televised training game.
The Gunners almost had a monopoly on possession and spent most of the match camped in their opponents’ half. For their part Qarabag seemed reluctant to commit to any tackles and were content just keeping Arsenal at bay.
Arsenal continued their domination in the second half, but couldn’t land a killer blow.
Carl Jenkinson had two shots blocked, Lacazette had a dangerous crossed cleared at the near post, and Sokratis summed up Arsenal’s night when he his header from Ozil’s free kick was heading closer to the corner flag than the goal.
Somehow Qarabag were still in it, and Arsenal almost let them back in when Jenkinson’s back pass went out for a corner. Goalkeeper Emilano Martinez got nowhere near the ball but Wilde-Donald Guerrier headed over.
Araz Abdullayev then had Qarabag’s best chance but he completely missed his shot from 12 yards out.
Arsenal did have the ball in the back of the net when Eddie Nketiah, Saka and Ozil combined in a lovely flowing move, but the goal was correctly ruled out for offside.
Saka then had a glorious chance to put the game to bed and become Arsenal’s youngest-ever goal scorer in Europe.
Maitland-Niles’ right-wing cross served the ball on a plate for Saka, but with time and the freedom of the penalty box he could only blast the ball straight at the keeper as Arsenal walked out 1-0 winners.
