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Europa League: Ramsey and Lacazette put Arsenal in charge; Atletico, Leipzig and Lazio win

Arsenal are in control of their Europa League quarter-final after Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette led a 4-1 win over CSKA Moscow on Thursday.

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Arsenal players celebrate
Arsenal players celebrate

London, April 6: Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette led the way as Arsenal crushed CSKA Moscow 4-1 at Emirates Stadium in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final, putting the Gunners in complete control of the tie.

The competition offers Arsenal their only realistic chance of securing Champions League football for next season and on this evidence they will take some beating, as they swept their visitors aside with consummate ease on Thursday.

Although Ramsey's early opener was quickly cancelled out by a delightful Aleksandr Golovin free-kick, Arsenal rarely looked in danger of failing to win, as the brilliant Mesut Ozil soon turned on the style to win a penalty that Lacazette fired home.

Ozil then set up Ramsey for his glorious improvised second, before also picking out Lacazette – starting for the first time since January 30 – as the Gunners opened up a three-goal lead.

Chances continued to fall Arsenal's way after the interval, though they were nowhere near as clinical and CSKA appeared to take encouragement from that, seeing an Alan Dzagoev header disallowed for offside.

And although Ramsey - chasing a treble - hit the post late on, there were to be no further goals, as Arsene Wenger's men take a comprehensive lead into next week's return leg in Moscow.

Arsenal made an imperious start and went ahead after just nine minutes, as Ramsey – who had an earlier goal disallowed – rifled an emphatic finish past Igor Akinfeev from the centre of the penalty area.

Golovin got CSKA an away goal soon after, bending a sumptuous free-kick into the top-right corner from just outside the area.

But at the back the away side looked absolutely hapless and that allowed the Gunners to restore their lead in the 23rd minute – Georgy Schennikov clumsily tripping Ozil in the area and Lacazette confidently dispatched the resulting spot-kick.

Ramsey then doubled his tally in style just before the half-hour mark, latching on to Ozil's chipped pass and flicking it over the head of Akinfeev with a delicate cushioned effort using the outside of his right foot.

Arsenal were rampant and a fourth arrived in the 35th minute, as Lacazette joined Ramsey in getting a second, finding the bottom-left corner with a smart finish after a well-placed cut-back from the immense Ozil.

Ramsey looked desperate to complete his hat-trick, going close twice within 10 minutes of the restart - an effort deflecting off Sergei Ignashevich and going just wide, before he then fired over from the middle of the area after Akinfeev could only parry Henrikh Mkhitaryan's long-range effort.

The Armenian was then forced off with an innocuous-looking injury just after the hour, with Alex Iwobi taking his place.

And Iwobi quickly found himself involved, racing on to Jack Wilshere's pass into the right side of the box, but instead of shooting he tried to pick out the offside Lacazette and the chance was wasted.

Ramsey went agonisingly close to getting his coveted third goal 12 minutes from time when he saw a first-time 18-yard strike come back off the right-hand post, but it is unlikely Arsenal will be made to rue that miss as they head to Russia with a commanding lead.

Atletico capitalize on defensive errors

Koke scored Atletico Madrid's quickest ever Europa League goal after just 22 seconds in an accomplished 2-0 quarter-final first-leg win over a sloppy Sporting CP at Wanda Metropolitano on Thursday.

The Spain midfielder punished Sebastian Coates' error to net the opener immediately after kick-off, setting the home side on their way to a sixth successive victory in this year's competition.

In truth, it was made it easy for the Rojiblancos, Jeremy Mathieu gifting Atleti a second, Antoine Griezmann's fourth goal in as many club outings arriving late in the first half.

The Portuguese outfit created occasional opportunities to snatch a handy away goal - substitute Fredy Montero notably blazing over at the death - but while both teams finished third in their respective Champions League groups, there was a clear gulf in quality.

Indeed, the last time these teams met in the Europa League, it was the Rojiblancos who went on to lift the trophy in the competition's inaugural 2009-10 season.

RB Leipzig and Lazio claim first leg advantage

Timo Werner struck the only goal of an entertaining first leg to hand RB Leipzig a narrow advantage over Marseille. While, late goals from Felipe Anderson and Ciro Immobile helped Lazio to a pulsating 4-2 win over Red Bull Salzburg in their quarter-final first leg.

Source: OPTA

Story first published: Friday, April 6, 2018, 8:22 [IST]
Other articles published on Apr 6, 2018
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