Aubameyang Late Goal Saves Arsenal In Europa League
A thrilling encounter in Athens has kept Arsenal and Mikel Arteta’s season alive, with the Gunners overcoming Benfica by an aggregate scoreline of 4-3 to secure their place in the round of 16 draw.
In the first leg in Hungary, Arsenal managed to score a solitary away goal in a 1-1 draw with the Portuguese club, however the same old defensive frailties showed themselves yet again.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang opened the scoring after 21 minutes, yet two catastrophic errors from Dani Ceballos cost the London club on the verge of half-time, the second of which allowed Rafa Silva to take advantage of an ill-advised back-header.
Diego Goncalves scored just before the half-time whistle, only for the aforementioned Silva to further Benfica’s aggregate advantage with another goal just after the hour.
With Benfica leading 3-1 on aggregate, there was panic on the faces of Arsenal players and coaches alike, fearing that they would once again be left with no realistic chance of silverware before March.
Yet, drama was to follow in Greece with Kieran Tierney pulling his side level in minute 67. It was a goal of pure beauty from the Scottish defender as he beat his defender with a fine body-feint before firing a powerful shot past Helton into the bottom corner.
Benfica were then set up to defend their away-goals advantage for the remaining 20 minutes, even though Arsenal’s porous defence was giving Darwin Nunez a lot of room on the counter-attack.
It eventually came down to the 88th minute, when a fantastic Bukayo Saka cross to the back-post found Aubameyang, with the Gabon forward nodding the ball into the roof of the net from a tight angle.
The brief drama of a VAR check for offside was short-lived as Arsenal had managed to save themselves, avoiding another European heartache on Greek soil, and booking their place in the next round.
