Published 06:26 IST, December 13th 2019
Arsenal draw 2-2 at Liege to qualify for the Round of 32 of the Europa League
Arsenal qualified for the Round of 32 of the Europa League after topping the group. Eintracht Frankfurt also qualified along with the North London club
Arsenal staged a late second-half comeback against Standard Liege to draw 2-2 in the final group stage match. The draw meant that the North London side qualified for the Round of 32 at the top the group. Alexandre Lacazette and Bukayo Saka scored the goals for the away side.
Arsenal through
On a cold night in Liege, no goals were scored by either team in the first half. However, Liege scored two goals via deflections to establish a healthy lead. Arsenal, who rested a number of first-team players were not able to dominate the match, but Saka's talent and Lacazette helped Arsnela recover and comfortably see through the match.
With matches coming in thick and fast in December and multiple injuries in the squad, interim head coach travelled with a depleted squad. After the match, Ljungberg said, "We should have made it in one or two goals up at half-time. That's what it felt like, at least. A bit of bad luck and we then get sucker-punched a bit. They then scored two deflected goals and of course, there's a lot of points to learn from before that, but they're still two deflected goals that you can't really smash the players for."
Youngster Saka also spoke to the media after the match, and he said, "It was beautiful for me because that is what I am judged on, scoring and assisting, so to score and to make one is a good night." On the team's performance, he said, "We feel we are taking a lot of confidence. In our last game in the Premier League, we won, and while we didn’t win here we came back. We always keep our heads and try to get a result because we knew what the stakes were and that if we lost we could possibly be out."
(With inputs from agencies)
Updated 07:46 IST, December 13th 2019