Arsenal vs Sevilla match report
Mikel Arteta’s Arsenal squad travelled to Spain on Tuesday night to face off against Europa League reigning champions Sevilla at the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan Stadium for our second away day of the Champions League campaign.
Walking out to a sea of white and a deafening Sevilla home crowd, Arsenal began the game on the back foot. Sevilla came out with a lot of energy and our players looked a little surprised at how much pressure Sevilla were putting on the midfield. Sevilla held Arsenal in our own half for a lot of the half. We did have a few counterattacking chances but weren’t able to find the target until we were well into the first half’s extra time.
Sevilla began an attack down the right wing and managed to cross the ball into the box but was cleared out by the head of Saliba onto the feet of Gabriel Jesus, who turned his back to the goal and somehow passed the ball through to him. Martinelli was far too fast for the Sevilla defence and went steaming ahead towards goal, side stepping the keeper and burying the ball into the back of the Sevilla net. A clean and composed finish from Martinelli and a perfect through ball from Jesus, put Arsenal in the driving seat going into half time.
In the second half, Arsenal looked to be a lot more confident and came out with some needed energy. Holding the ball up well and having a lot more possession than the first half. Only 7 minutes into the second half and Arsenal made it 2. After a long ball out from David Raya was cleared out of the Sevilla box to the feet of Declan Rice who spotted the run of Jesus on the overlap, who cut into the box, dropped his shoulder and curled the ball into the top right-side netting, putting Arsenal 2-0 up. A lovely finish from Jesus and a great assist from Rice.
Only 4 minutes later though, Sevilla managed to get one back. Starting from a set piece corner, the ball was whipped into the middle of the box and landed on the head of Sevilla’s Nemanja Gudelj, who fired the ball into the back of Raya’s net, getting them well and truly back into the game with over 30 minutes to go.
Sevilla then came on the front foot and looked like they were going to throw everything at trying to get an equaliser. The game was very physical from the start but began to get a bit messy out there and Arsenal fans would have been stressing over injures etc… but we managed to hold on. Sevilla looked to dominate those last 20 minutes but Arsenal’s defence stayed strong and saw out the win.
Walking away with all three points and on top of our Group, Arsenal looking more and more likely to progress into the round of 16.
What’s your thoughts Gooners?
Daisy Mae
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