Wenger’s old club Monaco won comfortably in North London
More agony for Wenger as his former club give Gunners lesson
Arsenal 1-3 AS Monaco
Arsene Wenger’s reunion with AS Monaco turned sour in London as Arsenal collapse and Monaco nets three valuable away goals. Monaco brought an impressive defensive record with them to England having conceded only three goals in seventeen games in all competitions. Welbeck tested their solid backline early on with a few lightning-fast attacks, but the visitors quickly had his number and were able to keep him and Arsenal’s very attacking-minded lineup at bay.
A lucky bounce off of Mertesacker saw Kondogbia’s powerful shot deflect into the back of the net and snatch Monaco the lead six minutes before the end of the first half. Arsenal came out swinging in the second 45, but their defense crumbled horribly to let Dimitar Berbatov knock the ball into the back of the net when the ball found him completely unmarked. Off the bench, Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain briefly breathed some life into his side with a goal in the 91st minute but Monaco put a final nail in the coffin just before the final whistle when Ferreira-Carrasco and the visitors took advantage of Oxlade-Chamberlain’s poor pass.
Keep On Attacking
If Arsenal is going to overcome this extreme deficit, Wenger’s attacking men will have to keep up the momentum that they had in the first leg and capitalize on the chances they were able to create. At the other end of the field, any goal conceded in Monaco could add up to an insurmountable scoreline for the Londoners.
Bayer 04 Leverkusen 1-0 Atletico Madrid
In spite of their strong form recently in the Spanish League, Atletico Madrid
Luck was not on the side of the visiting Spaniards, Atletico, as they lost two of their preferred starters to injury in the first half and Leverkusen’s young goalkeeper Bernd Leno had the saves of the week to deny the Spanish champions an away goal. With fifteen minutes left on the clock, Altetico went down to ten men when Tiago saw yellow for the second time, a significant blow to their hopes of netting an away goal.
The two teams played out an entertaining stalemate in the first 45 minutes but rocket strike from Hakan Calhanoglu was the well-deserved difference between the two sides. After a great touch from Karim Bellarabi right into his path, Calhanoglu made no mistake after taking a brilliant touch into space to buy himself the precious seconds it took to wind up and smash the ball into the top of the net.
Atleti Needs Goals
With the attacking caliber available to Diego Simeone through Torres, Griezmann, Garcia, and Mandzukic, his men have every opportunity to overcome the one goal deficit and move on to the quarter finals. Leverkusen will have to stay disciplined in the back like they did in the first leg and will hope that their attacking players can take advantage of any gaps they can create in Atletico’s defense.
