Arsenal’s main objective this season has been to qualify for the Champions League next season and they are 90 minutes away from achieving that feat after seeing off Spanish giants Valencia in the second leg 4-2 to win 7-3 on aggregate in their Europa League Semi-final tie.
Unai Emery’s men who had a 3-1 advantage from the first leg fell behind in the 11th minute through a swift counterattack move that saw Rodrigo sweep the ball into the net to send a noisy Mestalla stadium into a carnivore mood. The Gunners, however, came leveled the match 6 minutes later through Gabon striker Pierre Aubameyang who shot into the bottom corner from 18 yards out.
Arsenal’s player of the season should have added another late in the first half but skimmed his shot off the upright after his strike partner had set him up nicely.
He would soon make up for his miss just 4 minutes into the second half when Lucas Torreira fed him a good ball into the box and he fired into the far bottom corner to give Arsenal a 2-1 lead on the night.
Valencia would not go down without a fight and Gamiero bundled the ball home from close range to even the scores in the 57th minute. Aubameynag would, however, hand Arsenal the lead, lashing on to a good cross from Maitland Niles to finish at the near post for a 3-2 Arsenal lead. He completed his hat-trick with two minutes to play blasting the ball into the roof of the net after a nice give and go with Henrik Mkhitaryan.
Arsenal held on to record their first win on Spanish soil since they beat Real Madrid in 2006 and most importantly, a place in the Europa League final on May the 29th!