Europa League: Arsenal Lose at BATE Borisov
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15 February 2019 08:43 WIB
TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - Arsenal suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at BATE Borisov on a night forward Alexandre Lacazette will want to forget after being sent off late on, while Chelsea, Inter Milan and Napoli all won away in Europa League last 32 first-leg ties on Thursday, Feb. 14.
Spanish sides Sevilla, Valencia and Villarreal also tasted victory on the road, while Benfica, Club Brugge and Plzen have the upper hand heading into next week's second legs.
Arsenal had scored 10 goals in two matches against BATE Borisov in the same competition in 2017 but never looked like being as prolific in the freezing temperatures of Belarus.
BATE took the lead when Stanislav Dragun nodded a free kick past Arsenal goalkeeper Peter Cech seconds before halftime after Lacazette put a header wide midway through the first half.
The Frenchman thought he had made up for his miss 10 minutes after the break but his effort was ruled out for offside.
To compound his misery, Lacazette was shown a red card five minutes from time for felling Aleksandar Filipovic with an elbow after the defender held him back and was also booked.
Arsenal's London neighbors Chelsea did much better in similar temperatures, overcoming Malmo 2-1 in Sweden.
Ross Barkley gave the 2013 winners the lead when he stabbed home from close range on the half-hour and Oliver Giroud got his fifth goal in four Europa League matches with a slick backheel from a Willian cross 14 minutes into the second half.
Malmo's Anders Christiansen scored a lovely goal on the break to make it 2-1 but the Swedes could not level the tie.
REUTERS
