BATE stun Arsenal as Lacazette sees red
BARYSAW: Arsenal face an uphill battle to progress in the Europa League after a 1-0 defeat by BATE Borisov in the last-32 first leg which saw Alexandre Lacazette sent off on Thursday.
Stanislav Dragun put BATE ahead just before the break in Barysaw and Arsenal never threatened an equaliser, with Lacazette’s late dismissal also ruling him out of next week’s return game at the Emirates.
Unai Emery’s side have now won just two of their last nine away matches — last weekend’s victory over the Premier League’s bottom club Huddersfield and an FA Cup win against thirdtier Blackpool.
Arsenal enjoyed plenty of the ball in the opening stages, but it was the hosts who almost grabbed the lead as debutant Nemanja Milic flicked Igor Stasevich’s cross onto the outside of the post.
The visitors’ best chance in the first half fell to Lacazette, only for the Frenchman to head over when unmarked at the back post.
BATE made him pay when they snatched the advantage on the stroke of half-time as Dragun climbed highest to send a header from Stasevich’s freekick looping into the top corner.
Arsenal were struggling on a difficult pitch in Belarus, and even when Lacazette did find the net just before the hour mark, he was rightly flagged offside.
Emery, who won three consecutive Europa League titles with Sevilla from 2014-2016, threw on Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Lucas Torreira and Denis Suarez in an attempt to find a breakthrough.
But Arsenal continued to labour and their night took another turn for the worse as Lacazette was sent off for lashing out at Aleksandar Filipovic with his elbow in the 85th minute. CHELSEA EDGE MALMO
Ross Barkley scored 30 minutes in, and that was all Chelsea needed as they picked up a solid first-leg advantage with a 2-1 victory over Malmo in Sweden.
The former Everton midfielder made a blistering run to reach Pedro’s deep cross, losing his defender while collecting the ball and firing an off-balance shot into the back of the net on the halfhour mark. Olivier Giroud added the icing on the cake in the 58th minute as Willian sent the ball across the face of goal and the Frenchman was on hand to poke it in on the doorstep.
It wasn’t elementary for the Blues, as Malmo were dangerous throughout the match, especially at the start of the second half as blocks from David Luiz and Cesar Azpilicueta kept the home side out. Ultimately, despite holding just 33 percent possession, Malmo somehow outshot Chelsea 14-4 through the first hour of the match but could only put one of those on target.
Anders Christiansen eventually grabbed a late goal for Malmo in the 80th minute to give the Blues something to think about in the second leg.
Elsewhere, Inter Milan claimed a 1-0 win at Rapid Vienna despite Mauro Icardi snubbing the trip after being stripped of the captaincy over a contract row, with Lautaro Martinez scoring the winner from the penalty spot.
RESULTS
BATE Borisov 1 Arsenal 0; Malmo 1 Chelsea 2; Lazio 0 Sevilla 1; Galatasaray 1 Benfica 2; Rapid Vienna 0 Inter 1; Stade Rennais 3 Real Betis 3; Shakhtar Donetsk 2 Eintracht Frankfurt 2; Sporting CP 0 Valencia 1; Olympiakos 2 Dynamo Kiev 2; Celtic 0 Valencia 2; FC Zurich 1 Napoli 3; Club Brugge 2 RB Salzburg 1; Viktoria Plzen 2 Dinamo Zagreb 1; Krasnodar 0 Bayer Leverkusen 0; Slavia Prague 0 Racing Genk 0