Arsenal, Chelsea to meet in another allEngland final
LONDON: England became the first country to provide two finalists in both European competitions in the same season after Chelsea and Arsenal made it through to the title match in the Europa League yesterday.
Chelsea beat Eintracht Frankfurt 43 in a penalty shootout at Stamford Bridge, after a second straight 11 draw between the teams in the semifinals.
Eden Hazard converted the winning penalty, in what could be his final appearance at
Stamford
Bridge, after
Chelsea goalkeeper Kepa
Arrizabalaga saved two penalties.
The Belgium forward has been strongly linked with a move to Real Madrid in the offseason after seven years at Chelsea.
‘‘I don’t think about that,’’ Hazard said. ‘‘I’m only thinking about winning something for this club and this squad. If it’s my last game, I will try to do everything for this club to win a trophy.’’
Arsenal’s path to the final was more straightforward, beating Valencia 42 thanks to a hattrick from PierreEmerick Aubameyang to complete a 73 win on aggregate.
It adds up to a season of domination for English clubs in Europe after Liverpool and Tottenham Hotspur reached the final of the Champions League this week by overturning threegoal aggregate deficits at various stages of their semifinals against Barcelona and Ajax, respectively.
The Europa League final will be staged in Baku, Azerbaijan, on May 29 and will be followed by the European showpiece in Madrid on June 1.
Arsenal will need to win the Europa League to get into next season’s Champions League as it probably will not finish in the top four of the English Premier League.
Unai Emery was a threetime winner of the Europa League with Sevilla in 201416. Now he has a chance of winning it again after becoming the first coach to get to the final of the competition four times.
Once again the Gunners relied on the strike partnership of Aubameyang and Alexandre Lacazette, who also scored.
‘‘I’m very proud of the players, of the supporters who are with us here tonight, and I think we deserve it,’’ Emery said.
‘‘I think the players have done well, doing all they can, and we can be, I think, and every supporter the same, proud of all of Arsenal.’’
The Blues and underfire manager Maurizio Sarri can now end the season on a high after already securing Champions League football next season, with a match to spare.
Kepa, who was in goal when Chelsea lost a penalty shootout to Manchester City in the League Cup final after refusing to be substituted, told BT Sport 3: ‘‘Penalties, it’s a little bit lucky. Today we win, in the other final, we lose.
‘‘Always we prepare all the penalty shootouts and we are lucky today.
‘‘Wembley was [the] past. I learned, I say sorry to all the people. Today was another semifinal. We are very happy with the qualification to the final in Baku.’’ — AP