Arsenal, Leicester, Hoffenheim advance in Europa League

Arsenal's academy products helped team cruise into to kckout st of Europa League on Thursday, while Leicester needed a late equalizer from Jamie Vardy to advance.

Arsenal's record signing Nicolas Pépé showed his better side after he was sent off in a 0-0 draw at Leeds in Premier League on Sunday, scoring opening goal in a 3-0 away victory at rway's Molde. homegrown talents did rest as Reiss Nelson doubled lead and Folarin Balogun — less than a minute after coming on for his debut — netted third.

Hoffenheim and Leicester also progressed into round of 32 with two matches to spare. Premier League club equalized three times in a 3-3 draw at Braga, with Vardy grabbing final goal in injury time.

AC Milan failed to win for second straight game as Italian powerhouse was held to a 1-1 draw at Lille.

A minute of silence was observed before all matches to hor Diego Maradona, who died on Wednesday at of 60.

Maradona's former club Napoli was in action later Thursday, along with Tottenham, Benfica and Real Sociedad.

ARSENAL ADVANCES

Arsenal used a second-half scoring burst to maintain a perfect record with four wins from four.

Just a minute after hitting crossbar, Pépé curled a ball into a top corner of net five minutes into second half.

Pépé has struggled to establish himself in team for Premier League games after moving to Arsenal from French club Lille last summer in a deal worth a reported 80 million euros ($89 million) but he’s leading charge in Europa League.

He has scored three goals in competition this season and set up ar two for Arsenal.

Five minutes later, Joe Willock — ar academy product — provided a fine cross for Nelson to tap in second. Balogun finished it off from close range seven minutes from time.

Arsenal tops Group B with 12 points, six more than Molde. Rapid Vienna faced Dundalk later Thursday.

VARDY

Vardy equalized five minutes into stopp time to put Europa League newcomer Leicester into next st.

Fransérgio had put hosts 3-2 up four minutes earlier.

In previous round, Leicester beat Braga 4-0 at home. This time, it was 1-0 down after Al Musrati scored four minutes into game.

Harvey Barnes canceled that out five minutes later with an angled shot high into net, but Paulinho restored host's one-goal advant in 24th from close range.

Luke Thomas netted Leicester's second equalizer in 79th.

Leicester leads Group G with 10 points, with Braga on seven. Zorya Luhansk won 3-0 at AEK Ans, putting both teams on three points.

OR GROUPS

Hoffenheim took — lead through Christoph Baumgartner in 77th and substitute Andrej Kramarić added a penalty in 89th as German team advanced from Group L. Bundesliga club has 12 points, three more than Red Star Belgrade, which won 2-0 at Gent.

After Lille stunned AC Milan 3-0 at San Siro in previous round, it drew 1-1 with Italian powerhouse at home to stay top of Group H with eight points. Milan is second a point behind. Sparta Prague is ar point back after beating Celtic 4-1 at home. Celtic has just one point.

In Group I, Villarreal leads with 10 points after a 1-1 away draw at 10-man Maccabi Tel-Aviv, which is second with seven. Sivasspor is on six after winning 3-2 against Qarabağ.

Dinamo Zagreb blanked Wolfsberg 3-0 away to sit atop Group K with eight points, leading Feyeord by three after Dutch side drew 0-0 at CSKA.

Im credits: AP