Arsenal, Chelsea through to Europa last 8
Mumbai Indians PARIS: Pierre-emerick Aubameyang spearheaded Arsenal’s revival by scoring twice in a 3-0 win over Rennes to reach the Europa League quarter-finals 4-3 on aggregate, as Chelsea and Napoli also booked a last-eight spot on Thursday.
The Gunners cancelled out their 3-1 deficit from last week’s first leg in France inside 15 minutes as Aubameyang swept home from close range before teeing up Ainsley Maitland-niles to head home. However, Rennes had cause to complain as Aubameyang should have been flagged offside before the second goal.
M’baye Niang struck the post and Sead Kolasinac’s last-ditch tackle denied Ismaila Sarr before the Bosnian wing-back crossed for Aubameyang to give Arsenal breathing space.
Chelsea cruised into the last eight with greater ease as six Premier League sides will take their place in Friday’s quarter-finals n KRUNAL PANDYA: With injury doubts surrounding Hardik and Bumrah and a scarcity of spinners to call upon, Krunal will play a pivotal role with both bat and ball. Bumrah and Hardik’s presence in India’s ODI squad may see them pulled out of the IPL early while Krunal will be available for the duration. Over the last few seasons Krunal has been a consistent all-rounder: powerful with the bat, economical with the ball and a livewire in the field. draws with Manchester City, Manchester United, Liverpool and Tottenham in the last eight of the Champions League.
After a 3-0 victory in last week’s last 16, first leg at Stamford Bridge, Chelsea were even Rohit, Suryakumar, Kishan, Hardik and Krunal is a very strong Indian batting core and gives them some flexibility with how they want to use their overseas players.
Mumbai have one of the strongest late middle orders in the IPL with Hardik and Krunal joined by one of Pollard and Cutting - all of whom score at more than 10 runs per over in the death over phase of T20s. Pollard’s hitting quality has declined slightly in recent years but he remains a very dangerous player and is a better player of spin than Cutting.
T20 RUN RATE IN DEATH OVERS
INDIAN OVERSEAS
more dominant in Kiev as Olivier Giroud scored his first hat-trick for the club. Five-time winners Sevilla were beaten 4-3 after extra time to lose a thrilling tie against Slavia Prague 6-5 on aggregate.
Napoli wrapped up a 4-3 aggre-
gate victory over last season’s semi-finalists Salzburg despite a 3-1 second-leg loss in Austria.
Another Serie A giant fell, though, as the highly-rated Luka Jovic scored the only goal of the night and the tie as Eintracht Frankfurt beat Inter Milan at the San Siro. Russian outfit Krasnodar suffered heartbreak as Valencia won 3-2 on aggregate.
TENNIS