Despite beginning the game a goal down from the first leg, we managed to comfortably turn around our Europa League last 32 tie with a 3-0 victory in our early kick off at The Emirates.
The nerves were settled early on when BATE’s Volkov turned in Aubameyang’s cross to level the tie in front of a half empty stadium, but BATE almost struck back immediately, Lichtsteiner having to clear off his line to keep our lead intact.
Shkodran Mustafi sent the crowd into mild interest when he headed in a Xhaka corner for 2-0 at the break.
Obviously, we couldn’t just win a game with no negatives, and Laurent Koscielny limped off with an injury during the second half booooo! He was replaced by Sokratis, who soon got himself on the scoresheet yay! to make it three and complete the win.
The big news on the night was that Mesut Ozil was finally called on for the game, and the German had a decent game creating many chances, but perhaps going off the boil late on. Fingers crossed that it’s a sign of things to come, we have certainly missed his assists and creativity.
The draw takes place on Friday for the last 16 of the Europa League, so fingers crossed the draw treats us kindly and matches all of the decent teams left against each other.
Anyway, it’s back to Premier League action this weekend with the visit of Southampton, and then Bournemouth at home next midweek, then Spurs away next weekend. The games are coming thick and fast, so fingers crossed our players including Ramsey and Ozil can help to notch up nine out of nine in the these coming days.
