NOT ARF BAD
EUROPA LEAGUE Strugglers hand Zenit a Villarreal thumping LAST-16 CRUNCH RENNES ......... 3 ARSENAL ......... 1
SPANISH strugglers Villarreal produced one of the shocks of the night with a superb 3-1 win at Zenit.
Javier Calleja’s side, who advanced from Rangers’ group to reach the knockout stages, are in the midst of a relegation battle in La Liga where they sit third from bottom.
Villarreal weren’t fancied to get much change out of the Russians but handed them their first home loss in the Europa League in 24 games.
The Spaniards took the lead in 33 minutes when Vicente Iborra headed home from a free-kick but the home side took only two minutes to level thanks to Sardar Azmoun.
Villarreal though took control in the second half, with Gerard Moreno putting them 2-1 ahead in 64 minutes before Manu Morlanes added the third seven minutes later.
Rodrigo scored twice as Celtic’s last-32 conquerors Valencia won 2-1 at home against Krasnodar.
Napoli eased to a 3-0 win over Red Bull Salzburg thanks to goals from Arkadiusz Milik and Ruiz Fabian and an own goal by Jerome Onguene.
But it would have been 3-1 had VAR been in operation as the Austrians had a goal wrongly ruled offside. MIKE WALTERS IN FRANCE his team’s recent rash of red cards was red undermining their run-in but conceded Sokratis’ expulsion was a game-changer. He said: “We controlled the first 40 minutes but after the red card we could not control it.
“To lose 3-1 was hard but we will start the second leg with 11 against 11 and the same respect for Rennes.
“We need to change our performance but I have confidence in our supporters to give us a big atmosphere.”
In fairness to Rennes, they gave it the full prawn sandwich: Light show, flares, plastic flags and long queues in the club shop for half-and-half scarves.
They even serve hot dogs wrapped in crepes here, which sounds like culinary vandalism but tastes better than it looks.
However, within three minutes, the atmosphere at sold-out Roazhon Park