Sports
Arsenal See Off Napoli To Secure Europa League Semifinal Spot
Arsenal are through to the Europa League semifinals after they saw off Italian Serie A giants Napoli in their quarterfinal tie.
The Gunners faithfuls would have expected a much tougher test from the second best team in Italy but the Arsenal players made light work of the threat posed by Napoli over two legs.
Arsenal had won the first leg of their quarterfinal tie at home via a 2-0 victory made possible by goals from Aaron Ramsey and Kalidou Koulibaly (own goal).
The comfortable lead was not in danger throughout the second leg meeting which ended in a 1-0 win for Arsenal.
French international Alexandre Lacazette was brought down outside the Napoli box and he stepped up to convert the resulting freekick to give the Gunners a 36th-minute lead.
Arsenal were able to preserve that lead to seal a 1-0 win on the night and a 3-0 aggregate victory over their Italian opponents.
The Gunners will now face Spanish La Liga club Valencia in the last four of the competition.
Arsenal manager Unai Emery will face his former club while ex-Gunners players like Francis Coquelin and Gabriel Paulista are on the payroll at Valencia.
The Gunners host Valencia in their first leg before both teams face each other again in Spain for the second leg to determine this year’s Europa League finalists.
