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Arsenal made an important step towards the semi-finals of the Europa League, while Aaron Ramsey inspired a 2-0 win over Napoli in the first leg of the quarter-finals on Thursday.
Unai Emery's team took control of the game with a dominant first-half performance at Emirates Stadium.
Ramsey opened the scoring with a nice finish, which allowed the Gunners to maintain their lead. Napoli defender Kalidou Koulibaly beat Lucas Torreira in his own goal.
Arsenal could not add to the lead after the break, but they had done enough to place in pole position before the return leg in Naples on April 18.
It was an indispensable success for Emery, who this week called on his players to face the pressure of regaining their Champions League status after two consecutive seasons out of the top European club competitions.
Arsenal occupying fifth place in the Premier League after Sunday's loss to Everton, the Gunners can no longer rely on their national fortune to qualify for the Champions League.
This gives further importance to the Europa League, highlighting why Emery has played throughout the season in highly contested formations in order to retain the opportunity to reach the Champions League by raising the trophy.
After winning the Europa League three times during his tenure as Sevilla's boss, Emery knows the interest of a lead in the first leg and he sent an offensive training starring Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, Alexandre Lacazette and Mesut Ozil.
Emery's men quickly took the lead and Koulibaly showed why he was a target for Manchester United with two brave blocks to stop the shots of Aaron Ramsey and Ainsley Maitland-Niles.
Despite all Koulibaly's efforts, Arsenal needed only 15 minutes to take the lead.
An elegant carved movement in Naples opens as Ramsey and Ozil exchange a pbad in the midfield before Lacazette feeds Maitland-Niles.
Ramsey continued his run in the Napoli area and the Wales midfielder pbaded the Maitland-Niles pbad with a point-blank finish for his sixth goal of the season.
It was the perfect way for Ramsey to announce in front of an Italian audience before his move from the near season to Juventus.
– smooth transition –
Torreira is one of the midfielders who will succeed Ramsey and the Uruguayan showed why this should be a smooth transition since it helped to double the Arsenal advantage in the 25th minute.
Strangely dispossessing Fabian Ruiz in the Napoli semifinal, Torreira quickly accelerated to the penalty area, then skilfully returned to free space and forced a low shot that blocked Koulibaly as he returned to the goal. .
Napoli are far behind second place in Serie A behind Juventus and have had disappointing results in their previous two matches.
The lack of cohesion and confidence of his team, Carlo Ancelotti, was a very different experience from his last visit to the UAE in 2017, which ended in a 5-1 win in the Champions League with Bayern Munich .
Napoli 's keeper, Alex Meret, was ready for anything to prevent the long – term explosion of Aubameyang, Arsenal threatening to embarrbad the Italians.
Without a win in seven visits to England, Napoli's hopes of ending this fruitless race were further weakened when Lorenzo Insigne took off.
Napoli was trying to recover after the break, but Petr Cech tilted Koulibaly's head, while Piotr Zielinski gave the best of his side when he missed the target and the goalkeeper had to beat again.
Arsenal remained dangerous and Meret needed a good backup to deny Ramsey before Maitland-Niles was also frustrated by the overworked Napoli keeper.
Ramsey should have put the result without a shadow of doubt during his last match in the finals, but Arsenal will continue to visit Italy in a good mood next week.
(AFP)
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