Premier League Clubs Have a Strong Position in Europa League

Europa League round of 32

Three Premier League clubs are in the competition (Manchester United, Arsenal and Wolverhampton) and all clubs obtained a good result in view of moving forward. 

Manchester United is the only club out of the three who did not win their first leg match, 1-1. The Red Devils brought a point back from Club Brugge. Largely dominated during the first half-hour of the match by a determined Belgian team, Martial found the net to equalize and give Man United the edge before the second leg. Coach Solskjaer was positive after the draw:

“anything could happen and we got the away goal”, started the coach. “Anto [Anthony Martial], a very, very good goal, individual goal. He worked hard to win the ball off him and was composed to put it in. So we’re happy with that, but we know we can play better.

There’s still 90 minutes to play. We’re halfway, it’s one each. They’ve got to come to Old Trafford and score, but we want to score as well. We need to think about winning the game”, added the Norwegian manager.

Arsenal and Wolves have the lead

Arsenal was traveling to Greece to face Olympiacos. Away games in Greece are always tough to manage as the atmosphere is electric and passion is strong there. The Gunners completed a clean sheet and scored the away goal thanks to Lacazette, 1-0. Coach Arteta was delighted with the result:

It is tough to come to a stadium like this, away in Europe, and get a win and there were a few lessons in the game for us, and some great things for our development as a team”, the coach said.

The first 10 to 15 minutes we suffered because we didn’t do the things that we talked about, and didn’t execute the simple things. We had a situation to completely break on them and we kept giving simple balls away. In many moments it did not allow us to have the continuity to travel with the ball and play in the opposition half more.

On the three consecutive clean sheets: “I think we are doing a lot of work to try to stay as compact as possible in many situations when we don’t have it. I am pleased with that because it is big part”.

“We are really pleased, obviously we talked about turning draws into wins but it doesn’t matter if it’s home or away. We have to do it together, so it is great advert for the team to believe that we can go away and get a result that we got tonight”, concluded the coach. 

Wolverhampton have fans dreaming

The Wolves recorded the largest win of the Europa League round of 32 first leg, 4-0 against Espanyol Barcelona. The 8th club in the Premier League is the cinderella story of the competition and keep on dreaming following the strong result in the first leg. 

“Every supporter needs to enjoy that, and realise how big it was for this football club”, said defender Coady.

“Fans are there to dream and to believe, and to look at their football club and be proud. That’s exactly what we want to make them. It was amazing – an incredible night for everybody.”