Europa League, Arsenal score four against Slavia Prague: Records broken
Arsenal swept aside Slavia Prague away from home in a 4-0 victory which helped them to reach the Europa League semi-finals. Arsenal went into the game with the score tied 1-1 in the first leg. Mikel Arteta's side bossed the show completely as an in-form Alexandre Lacazette shined on the night. Arsenal will face Villarreal in the semis. Here are the records broken.
Nicolas Pepe opened the scoring after squeezing the ball at the near post to open the scoring in the 18th minute. Alexandre Lacazette converted a penalty three minutes later. Bukayo Saka scored the third as Arsenal stunned the Czech side inside 24 minutes. Arsenal controlled the game well thereafter and Lacazette smashed his second goal low into the net in the latter stages.
Arsenal have reached the semi-finals of European competition for the 10th time (including Fairs Cup). They have got to the last four in three of their four Europa League campaigns. Arsenal have now scored three-plus goals in four consecutive away games in all competitions for the first time since December 1932 (5 games).
As per Opta, Arsenal kept a clean sheet in a European game for the first time in eight games, since a 3-0 away win over Molde in the Europa League in November 2020. Slavia Prague suffered their first home defeat in their last seven European games (W3 D3), conceding more goals in this game (4) than in the previous six on home soil (3).
Arsenal boss Mikel Arteta was pleased with his side's performance. "The boys were really at it from the start," Arteta said. "We won in a convincing way, so credit to the players."
As per Opta, Only Radamel Falcao (20) and Kevin Gameiro (19) have scored more Europa League knockout stage goals than Arsenal striker Alexandre Lacazette (18). The Frenchman has scored 2+ goals in consecutive games in all competitions for the first time for any club since his last three appearances for Lyon in May 2017. Lacazette has scored 17 goals in all competitions this season.
