Secondstring Arsenal score six
EUROPA LEAGUE Arsenal remain unbeaten, joined by Milan, Bilbao, Zenit St. Petersburg, Lazio in knock out stages PARIS:
Jack Wilshere starred as Arsenal romped to a 6-0 thrashing of BATE Borisov at a half-empty Emirates Stadium in their final Europa League group game on Thursday, while Marseille booked their place in the last 32.
Arsene Wenger made 11 changes to the team that were beaten by Manchester United at the weekend, but the Frenchman’s second string put in promising displays to give him a 700th win as Arsenal manager.
After injury-plagued Mathieu Debuchy started the rout in the 11th minute by drilling home his first goal for 1,082 days and Theo Walcott tapped in, two minutes before the break Wilshere ended his Arsenal goal drought that dated back to the final day of the 2014-15 Premier League season.
A Denis Polyakov own goal made it four early in the second period, before Olivier Giroud scored his sixth goal this term
from the penalty spot and Mohamed Elneny completed the rout with 16 minutes left.
“It’s a bit of a relief (that I scored). It’s one of those games -it didn’t mean anything because we had topped the group,” Wilshere told BT Sport.
“It’s one of those games you need to be in the right mind -- we enjoyed it. We’re happy to go into the next round. All we can do when we get our opportunity is give the manager a headache.”
RED STAR END 26-YEAR WAIT TO ADVANCE
Former continental champions Red Star Belgrade extended their interest in Europe beyond Christmas for the first time in 26 years after a 1-0 home win over Cologne on Thursday sent them into the Europa League knockout stages. Red Star, who won the European Cup in 1991 finished second in Group H behind Arsenal with nine points.
More than a quarter of a century of European failure which went hand-in-hand with Red Star’s financial decay ended in front of a capacity 52,000 crowd in the Rajko Mitic stadium after forward Slavoljub Srnic struck a 22nd-minute winner.
Red Star coach Nenad Milojevic was overjoyed with the accomplishment and praised his team.
“This generation deserved to qualify for the knockout stages and it’s just reward for all the energy the players and the fans have put in,” he said.
“We’re the only team to have reached the last 32 from the preliminary rounds and we advanced from a tough group after playing a total of 14 games in the competition.
MARSEILLE THROUGH TO LAST 32
French side Marseille sealed their spot in Monday’s draw with a 0-0 draw against Salzburg to join the Austrians in progressing from Group I. Rudi Garcia’s Ligue 1 team moved into the last 32 for the second straight season.
Atalanta, coming off the back of a stunning 5-1 win at Everton a fortnight ago, edged out in-form Lyon 1-0 to finish top of Group E as Andrea Petagna scored his fourth goal of the season in the 10th minute.
EVERTON BOW OUT WITH WIN
Everton made it two wins from two under new manager Sam Allardyce by cruising to a 3-0 victory over Apollon Limassol in
Cyprus. Forward Ademola Lookman, 20, scored a double with close-season signing Nikola Vlasic adding a late third to salvage some pride for Everton as they avoided finishing bottom of the group.
ALREADY QUALIFIED MILAN BEATEN
Gennaro Gattuso is still waiting for a first win as AC Milan coach after a 2-0 loss at Rijeka following their embarrassing draw at Serie A minnows Benevento at the weekend. But the Croatian outfit missed out on joining Milan in the last 32 as AEK Athens pipped them to second courtesy of a goalless draw at Austria Vienna.
Sheriff Tiraspol slipped from first to third in Group F after a 2-0 defeat by FC Copenhagen, dropping below Lokomotiv Moscow, who beat bottom side FC Zlin by the same score.
Athletic Bilbao also qualified with a 2-0 win at Zorya Luhansk.