SAN FRANCISCO, April 06, (THEWILL) – Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette scored two goals each as Arsenal humbled Russian club CSKA Moscow in the UEFA Europa League first leg quarter-final match on Thursday at the Emirates Stadium.
The Gunners romped towards the Europa League semi-finals with a 4-1 win in a match devoid of any of the political tension that threatened to overshadow the tie due to frosty relations between London and the Russian capital.
Arsenal quickly ended any doubt over the contest on the field as Aaron Ramsey and Alexandre Lacazette both scored twice in the first half to surely put the tie out of CKSA’s reach.
Languishing in sixth in the Premier League, 13 points adrift of the top four, Arsenal’s last realistic hope of qualifying for next season’s Champions League is by winning the Europa League in Lyon on May 16.
While CSKA were unable to cope with Arsenal’s speed of thought and movement at the back, they exposed the Gunners’ own defensive weaknesses.
Aleksandr Golovin curled home a wonderful free-kick after haphazard defending from Shkodran Mustafi and Laurent Koscielny to level six minutes later.
And the Russians could even have gone in front when Ahmed Musa fired into the side-netting with just Petr Cech to beat.
In the same vein, Italian club Lazio and Spain’s Atletico Madrid won the first leg of their UEFA Europa League quarter-final matches on Thursday.
Lazio edged a six-goal thriller 4-2 against Salzburg as all four home sides took an advantage into the second leg.
Meanwhile, favourites for the competition Atletico eased past Sporting Lisbon 2-0 after Koke put the 2012 winners ahead in the Spanish capital after just 22 seconds.
Antoine Griezmann’s 24th goal of the season also put Diego Simeone’s men on the brink of a fifth European semi-final in his seven seasons in charge.
Elsewhere, RB Leipzig lead French giants Marseille 1-0 as German international striker Timo Werner got the only goal for the Bundesliga side.
