Arsenal 3-0 Rennes: Aubameyang and Maitland-Niles complete Gunners turnaround to make Europa League quarter-finals
Arsenal completed their Europa League turnaround against Rennes with a 3-0 win at the Emirates sending them through to the quarter-finals 4-3 on aggregate.
The Gunners now join Chelsea, who battered Dynamo Kyiv, in the hat for the Europa League quarter-finals draw, which is being held on Friday.
Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang score twice, either side of Ainsley Maitland-Niles' header, to reverse their 3-1 defeat in France last week and make it a clean sweep of six English sides through to the quarter-finals in both the Champions League and Europa League.
From Batman to Black Panther!
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Aubameyang grabs his second and celebrates. The Gunners have one foot in the Endgame.
🙅🏾♂️ Wakanda Forever 🙅🏾♂️ pic.twitter.com/lUoc4Ojyu8
Arsenal were on target in the fifth minute to reduce their aggregate deficit to 3-2 as Aubameyang got his name on the scoresheet by turning home a cross from Aaron Ramsey.
Arsenal levelled the aggregate scores in just the 15th minute as Maitland-Niles struck to make it 2-0 on the night - nodding home at the back post from Aubameyang's cross.
Arsenal held a 2-0 lead at the break thanks to those strikes from Aubameyang and Maitland-Niles, a scoreline which would be enough to send the Gunners into the quarter-finals on away goals with the scores level at 3-3 on aggregate.
Rennes threatened to grab their vital away goal as the game became increasingly scrappy.
But Arsenal gave themselves the breathing room they needed in the 73rd minute as Aubameyang grabbed his second and the Gunners' third on the night, tapping in Kolasinac's low cross at the far post.
Europa League round-up
WHAT. A. STRIKE! 😍
— Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) March 14, 2019
Munir El Haddadi with a sensational volley for Sevilla!
When you catch it perfectly on the laces 👌 pic.twitter.com/oZRSJnZ0EE
Luka Jovic's early strike dumped three-time UEFA Cup winners Inter Milan out as Eintracht Frankfurt edged their way to victory in Italy.
Jovic scored what proved to be the tie's only goal just five minutes into the second leg at the San Siro to put the German side into the hat.
Goals from strikers Gerard Moreno and Carlos Bacca handed Villarreal a 2-1 win over Zenit St Petersburg with Branislav Ivanovic's stoppage-time effort making the aggregate score 5-2.
Slavia Prague midfielder Ibrahim Traore put paid to Sevilla's hopes of a sixth triumph in the competition in its various guises in a seven-goal thriller.
Wissam Ben Yedder's penalty had cancelled out Michael Ngadeu-Ngadjui's opener before the break and Munir El Haddadi's stunning volley repeated the feat following Tomas Soucek's spot-kick after it as the tie went into extra-time.
Franco Vazquez headed Sevilla in front, only for fellow substitute Mick Van Buren to level and set the stage for Traore to make it 4-3 on the night and 6-5 on aggregate right at the death.
There was a late finish too in Lisbon as Benfica overturned Dinamo Zagreb's narrow first-leg lead to progress.
Jonas' 71st-minute goal was enough to take the tie into extra-time, during which Francisco Reis Ferreira made it 2-0 on the night and, after Petar Stojanovic had been sent off for a second bookable offence, Alejandro Grimaldo made sure with a third.
Europa League last 16 results
- Dynamo Kyiv 0-5 Chelsea (Agg: 0-8)
- Red Bull Salzburg 3-1 Napoli (Agg: 3-4)
- Krasnodar 1- 1Valencia (Agg:2-3)
- Arsenal 3-0 Rennes (Agg: 4-3)
- Internazionale 0-1 Eintracht Frankfurt (Agg: 0-1)
- Villarreal 2-1 Zenit St Petersburg (Agg: 5-2)
- Benfica 3-0 Dinamo Zagreb (Agg: 3-1)
- Slavia Prague 4-3 Sevilla (Agg: 6-5)
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