How Arsenal began their Europa League campaign with 2-1 win over Zurich – live
Arsenal got their 2022-23 Europa League campaign off to the perfect start with a 2-1 win against FC Zurich.
A debut goal from Marquinhos and Eddie Nketiah’s winner – either side of Mirlind Kryeziu’s penalty – were enough for all three points for the Gunners.
Mikel Arteta’s side were in total dominance for much of the evening and pressed home their advantage after just over a quarter of an hour. A clinical counter attack, started by some very smart footwork from Fabio Vieira, was finished off brilliantly by debutant Marquinhos.
The visitors went on to squander several good chances afterwards and were made to pay for their inability to take their chances on the stroke of half-time. They couldn’t deal with a Zurich corner and a typical striker’s tackle from Nketiah saw him bring down Ole Kristian Selnaes.
Kryeziu stepped up and made no mistake from 12 yards, sending Matt Turner the wrong way on his debut. The second half followed the same pattern as the first as Arsenal took little over 15 minutes to restore their advantage.
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Nketiah was able to make amends for his earlier mistake in the perfect way as he headed Marquinhos’ brilliant cross inside Yanick Brecher’s near post from a really tight angle.
The result takes Arsenal top of Group A on opening night in the Europa League while Zurich, unsurprisingly, find themselves at the bottom of the pile.
That concludes our coverage of Arsenal’s 2-1 triumph over FC Zurich. For the Gunners, Marquinhos had a goal and an assist, while Eddie Nketiah had the same numbers as well as a penalty surrendered.
Mikel Arteta may be disappointed that the final result was not more comfortable, but the Group A table puts Arsenal at the top, which is the most important thing.
