It Was a Gallant Effort, But It Wasn’t Enough

It Was a Gallant Effort, But It Wasn’t Enough

By Christian Leggas

In a tight battle all night, Arsenal managed to secure a slender but vital one-nil advantage going into the second leg of the tie thanks to a close range and tidy finish from Alexandre Lacazette.

Olympiacos started very much on the front foot and created two wonderful chances to score within the first five minutes of the game. Mathieu Valbuena saw his semi-tame volley turned away by Bernd Leno, that spillage very nearly fell to the feet of Olympiacos attacker Giorgos Masouras, who not long after spurned a golden chance to put Olympiacos in the ascendency as his close-range header sailed over the crossbar after he was picked out superbly by Valbuena with a cross.

Shortly after that Masouras blunder, the Gunners nearly made him and the home side pay the ultimate price as Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang found himself in acres of space on the right flank, and his cross was millimeters away from the toes of Alexandre Lacazette who couldn’t quite turn the ball into the back of the net, from an Olympiacos perspective, credit must go to center-back Ruben Semedo there, as he put just enough pressure on Lacazette in that situation.

As twenty minutes ticked over, Arsenal should have found themselves ahead, after some superb play from Joseph Willock and Gabriel Martinelli, the latter managed to keep the ball in play with a superb turn, and then cross to find Alexandre Lacazette but he blasted his first-time effort wide of the target, a player of his quality should at the very least have put that on target.

Giorgos Masouras was at the heart of many of the home sides first-half chances, and on twenty-five minutes he saw his cross from the right flank nearly become an own goal for Arsenal as David Luiz almost toed the ball beyond his goalkeeper, thankfully for the visitors, their German custodian was good enough to keep his team level.

As Arsenal cleared the danger from that chance, a second yellow card was issued to Olympiacos as Ruben Semedo needlessly dragged back Alexandre Lacazette when Arsenal was on the counter-attack, that alone could cost Olympiacos dearly in the second leg as the Portuguese center-back will now miss the game in London due to a mandatory suspension for an accumulation of yellow cards.

The theme of the early parts of the first half was quite evident, Olympiacos did control the bulk of possession, and pressed quite high when attacking, which did allow Arsenal to break quickly on the counter-attack multiple times when the home side lost the ball.

After an eventually even first half, both sides went into the half time break level.

In comparison to the first half, there weren’t as many major scoring opportunities for either side in the second forty-five minutes.

David Luiz on fifty minutes struck a long-range free-kick for the visitors that drifted wide of the target. For Olympiacos, a close-range header from Ousseynou Ba following a dangerous cross from Mathieu Valbuena nearly found its way into the net, but it was superbly kept out by Bernd Leno, but it wouldn’t have counted anyway given that Ba was offside.

Valbuena then had a long-range free-kick of his own that eventually was gobbled up by Bernd Leno, after the German spilled the ball ever so slightly at the first attempt of saving it.

It looked like the game was heading for a stalemate, in the eighty-first minute, however, Olympiacos hearts were broken, exciting prospect Bukayo Saka suddenly found himself in some space in the eighteen-yard area and fired in a low and dangerous cross that was too good for Alexandre Lacazette to not score from. It was no more than the Gunners deserved. Lacazette should have made it two-nil for Arsenal, not long after scoring his first goal funnily enough, as he saw his powerful effort turned behind by Olympiacos Goalkeeper Jose Sa for an Arsenal corner.

From that resulting corner, two more chances went begging, as central defenders Sokratis Papastathopoulos and Shkodran Mustafi couldn't convert consecutive headers on target.

From there, the Gunners were able to hold on to their one-goal lead and by extension, take that vital advantage into the game in London, that one goal could be a devastating blow to Olympiacos, to be blunt. The task for Greek Giants in the second leg isn’t impossible, but from here, it is going to be a very tough ask to win this tie.

Hellas Football