Match Day Thread Arsenal vs Napoli - Matchday Thread - Europa League Quarter-Finals

We've absolutely steamrolled them, they could barely get out of their own half. Excellent pressing and structure to our play.

We've missed so many chances though. We had 11 shots in that half alone!

I don't know if Emery's going to shut up shop and see it out or tell them to go for more in the second half.

We can genuinely kill the tie off tonight if we want to.

 

Good result.

Big that we kept a clean sheet.

Hats off to our Wing Backs today! COYG.

 

my biggest worry from today is all the chances we failed to put away.

I hope we dont come to rue those...

easily could have been 3 or 4 nil today.

 

having said that,

FANTASTIC performance and result.

 

2-0 is a great home first leg score. It means we need one goal and they have to score 4 to win. Clean sheet was more important than another goal.

 

We're more than capable of nicking at least one in Naples as they will come at us to score.

 

Maybe I'm still not over those misses, but I'm actually pissed we only won 2-0.

We were by far the better team, had the better chances (and lots of them) and ran the game.

The second leg should just have been a formality. Napoli don't deserve to even be in with a sniff of getting through.

I'm happy we've won, but at the same time, I'm seething we missed so many sitters.

Those Ramsey and Aubameyang misses could be huge.

Man, this is the worst I've felt after a 2-0 victory.

 

Should have been more, but it's still a very good win. Especially with a clean sheet.

 

Of course, and I would have taken it before the game for sure, but it is so frustrating to play as well as we did, have 17 chances on goal (good quality chances too) and only get on the scoresheet 2 times.

With the quality of chances we had, this tie should be dead and buried already.

 

It should be, but Napoli had their chances too and we did well to keep them out. I would have loved a 4-0 tonight, and it should have been. But I'm still well pleased with a 2-0 lead going into the 2nd leg.

 

The reason why I'm annoyed is because that game had shades of Atletico Madrid last season, where we completely battered them, had countless chances to put the game (and tie) to bed, and then they got back into the game, which ended up costing us a huge shot to reach the final.

Obviously the key differences are we won and didn't concede this time around, but my fear is the two-goal cushion won't be enough heading into Naples. Especially with our away record. We will need to get an early goal to settle any nerves. Their fans are going to be on our backs and the atmosphere will be electric. We've struggled in those types of environment this season...

 

Yeah our away record this season is ****ing gash. Also in the Europa league we've lost away to Rennes and Bate. So we are going to need to be so much better when we go to Napoli next week. But as Toledo says, if we score, then they need to score 4 to go through. And with them hunting goals they are going to leave themselves open to the counter, and we have the players to hit them on the break.

 

I thought the commentary was so dire last night, that I muted the second half and got my 11 year old daughter to do it. She was superb...….

 

To be fair though we have one of the best conversion rates in Premierleague history this Season. (23.1%) I wouldnt worry about us not putting away chances our issue is going to be wether we can defend well enough away from home.

 

Normally I'd agree, but that game, we had chances in abundance and only took 2 of them. Ramsey's sitter from eight-yards, Meret's acrobatic save from Maitland-Niles, Aubameyang hitting the side netting from a chance he usually would score from...

At this stage of the competition, you need to be more ruthless.

Make no mistake, we are obviously in the driving seat going into the second-leg, but if they get an early goal, then we are really up against it.

 

Just joking, but if you were playing on a team I coached you would be running laps forever with that negativity! The beatings will continue until morale improves!

 

Napoli vs Arsenal
Europa League 2018-19
Quarter-final, second leg (2-0 agg)
Venue: Stadio San Paolo, Naples
Date: Thursday, 18 April, 2019
Kick-off: 8pm GMT

Team news ahead of the second leg:

Unai Emery is confident that Lucas Torreira will be fit for the second leg after being substituted at half-time against Watford with what was described as a "small injury".

Barcelona loanee Denis Suarez is struggling with an ongoing groin issue, while long-term absentees Hector Bellerin, Rob Holding and Danny Welbeck are all still sidelined.

Sokratis Papastathopoulos' two-game domestic suspension does not apply to European competition, so he is available once again, while Petr Cech typically replaces Bernd Leno for Europa League matches.

Predicted XI: Cech, Koscielny, Sokratis, Monreal, Maitland-Niles, Kolasinac, Xhaka, Torreira, Ramsey, Ozil, Lacazette

 

Good team. What I would have gone with, more or less.

Let's hope the players perform tonight.

 

1-0 to the Arsenal at the half. I think we might be OK at this point.

 

Big big win that tonight and a really professional performance. We weren't at our best going forward but defensively we were really solid. The back 3 were really strong and didn't look like giving anything away all night.

Into the semi finals we go