Arsenal strike late to reach semis
Arsenal overcame a scare against CSKA Moscow yesterday to reach the semifinals of the Europa League while Salzburg staged a stunning comeback to oust Lazio with four goals in 20 minutes.
CSKA went 2-0 up to put Arsenal under pressure but the London club hit back to draw 2-2 on the night and progress 6-3 on aggregate.
Lazio seemed poised to clinch a place in the last four when Ciro Immobile struck in the 55th minute to give the Italian team a 5-2 advantage.
Salzburg, though, produced a spectacular recovery to become the first Austrian team to reach the semifinals of the competition in its current format.
Marseille also qualified after losing the first leg, beating Leipzig 5-2 to win 5-3 overall, while Atletico Madrid lost 1-0 at Sporting Lisbon but scraped through 2-1 on aggregate.
Arsenal had to show some second-half grit to help manager Arsene Wenger move within three games of winning his first European trophy. Wenger’s team initially struggle, going 2-0 down after 50 minutes following goals from Fedor Chalov and Kirill Nababkin.
Danny Welbeck came to the rescue with a 75th-minute goal before Aaron Ramsey went charging through the middle of the defence to grab Arsenal’s second goal in stoppage time.
Organisers had been faced with the awkward prospect of two Red Bull-branded teams, Salzburg and Leipzig, meeting in the semis and a resulting conflict of interest.
But it was the lesser-known of the two teams that made the semis, with Salzburg taking advantage of a shock Lazio collapse. Stefan Lainer capped a remarkable fourgoal burst when he netted with a diving header in the 76th minute.
In France, Leipzig went into the game against Marseille with a onegoal lead and opened up a 2-0 advantage on aggregate thanks to Bruma’s second-minute goal.
Marseille hit back via an own goal from Stefan Ilsanker and strikes by Bouna Sarr and Florian Thauvin. Leipzig regained the lead with Jean-Kevin Augustin’s 55thminute curling shot before Marseille scored again through Dimiti Payet and Hiroki Sakai.
Atletico remain on course for a third European final in five seasons after holding off Sporting.