Amy Lawrence was at the Stadio San Paolo tonight. Her report has just landed, and here it is. Enjoy! Thanks for reading this MBM. Nighty night!
Arsenal breezed into the semi-finals of the Europa League thanks to Alexandre Lacazette’s first-half free kick.
Updated
Thu 18 Apr 2019 17.19 EDT
First published on Thu 18 Apr 2019 14.00 EDT
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Key events
Post-match player interviews
Laurent Koscielny: “We came here with ambition, we wanted to win, to score some goals. We did it, and kept a clean sheet as well, which is important for the confidence. It is important for the rest of the season. We are happy with qualification for the semi-final. Napoli have played in the Champions League this season, they are a good team, but we did a job on them at home. We fought together, it is good for the team.”
Alexandre Lacazette: “I have been practising that free kick in training. My team-mates believe in me, and I’m happy I scored it tonight.”
Arsenal’s opponent in the semis will be Valencia, who have beaten Villarreal 2-0 (agg: 5-1). Meanwhile pity poor Rob ‘Fingers’ Smyth, who has had quite a goalfest to report on tonight, straight off the back of last night’s lunacy at the Etihad: Chelsea made heavy work of Slavia Prague, beating them 4-3; that’s a 5-3 win for Maurizio Sarri’s side on aggregate. Smyth’s keyboard must be ground to dust. Chelsea will face Eintracht Frankfurt, who saw off Benfica 2-0 tonight, winning on away goals after a 4-4 aggregate draw. An all-England final in Azerbaijan is on!
FULL TIME: Napoli 0-1 Arsenal (agg: 0-3)
Nothing happens in added-on time, and that’s just fine by Arsenal! They did a number on Napoli tonight and thoroughly deserve to progress to the semi-finals of the Europa League!
90 min: A yellow card for Callejon, who takes a wild swipe at Kolasinac’s ankles. There will be three more minutes of this.
88 min: The clock ticks on. Everyone wants to go home.
86 min: Incidentally, Elneny came on for Xhaka a few minutes ago.
85 min: Another Napoli corner. They’ve won enough of them, but none of them have bothered Cech. This one doesn’t either, Koulibaly’s header flashing well wide left.
83 min: Iwobi romps down the left and finds Aubameyang just inside. Mkhitaryan is free in the box, but Aubameyang can’t see him. He plays the ball back to Iwobi, who curls powerfully round Meret and off the inside of the post, his shot clattering back into the keeper. But it’s immaterial, because the flag’s gone up for offside.
82 min: Napoli win a corner but it’s a waste of time. “By Steven Hallett’s reckoning, if Arsenal move to the South Sandwich Islands (7610 miles) they’ll win the World Cup, Wimbledon, the Stanley Cup, the Masters, and Six Nations, and much more besides,” suggests Andrew Benton. “Do balls spin the opposite way in the Southern hemisphere?”
80 min: So having said that, Rui crosses from the left. Koscielny fresh-air swipes at his clearance, and Monreal, surprised and facing the wrong way, absolutely welts the ball straight at Cech. Anywhere else, and that was a farcical own goal, but the keeper is able to catch and spare his colleague’s blushes.
79 min: There really isn’t much going on. This has been an extremely impressive performance from Arsenal, who have been the bosses of Napoli pretty much from the off.
77 min: Torreira is down having taken a whack upside the head. Ooyah oof.
76 min: Rui reaches the byline down the left but his cross is too long. He’s been effective since coming on.
74 min: Cech is booked for time-wasting, which seems a bit unnecessary given the state of the tie.
73 min: Rui doesn’t take too long to get involved. He strides down the left and rolls a cross in to the feet of Milik, who should slam home from close range but instead overruns the ball, which clanks off his ankle and harmlessly away.
71 min: Mario Rui comes on for Ghoulam. “Perhaps it is just Arsenal’s away form in England,” argues Steven Hallett. “By this logic, if all away games were played at least 1283.5 miles away (according to Google, the distance from Napoli to London) then they would win the league. With this in mind, Arsenal need to move to Gibraltar. This way they can still be in the Premier League being members of an English territory, but also not suffer from the pandemonium that they suffer in the five-mile to less than 1283.5-mile range when playing away. Done. Next I’m off to sort out Man U. Saving Real Madrid for next week.”
69 min: Iwobi comes on for Lacazette. Here’s Matthew Turner: “Just to repeat and amplify Mac Millings’ confusion, Napoli can be quite a dangerous team and are known for scoring some nice goals. Arsenal are a team that are, uh ... not known for stopping other teams from scoring goals. What gives?”
67 min: Koulibaly goes up for a header in the Arsenal box. Sokratis clears. Koulibaly falls over, and Koscielny accidentally stands on his head. Koulibaly springs up, furious, and takes Sokratis to task for it. Sokratis tries to calm Koulibaly down. He eventually manages it, but it takes a while.
65 min: Napoli take a few shots from various angles. None hit the target.
63 min: Insigne has positioned himself on the touchline, arms crossed tightly, watching the action. He is fuming. As for Younes ... well now I can’t stop thinking about Stan Ogden. I can’t help it.
61 min: That’s Insigne’s last contribution of the evening. He leaves in high dudgeon, hooked for Amin Younes.
60 min: A long pass down the inside-left channel for Insigne to chase. He gets ahead of Maitland-Niles and scoots into the box, but his chest-down and poke goalwards is as weak as milky tea. Cech slakes his thirst. “From what I understand, if Millings’ pockets are deep enough, a scudetto shouldn’t be a problem,” claims Matt Dony. “And the look on Ronaldo’s fizzog as Watford climbed above Juve in the league would be worth every dirty penny.”
58 min: Lacazette threatens to break clear down the inside-left channel. Chiriches extends a leg and concedes a corner. The ball’s hit deep towards Aubameyang, who slaps a weak shot towards the bottom right from a tight angle. Meret makes a nine-course tasting menu of kicking it clear. That was all very strange, performed at slow motion by both players. It’s almost as though this second half has already turned into a de facto training session.
56 min: Maitland-Niles rather needlessly puts a Callejon right-wing cross out for a corner. The ball’s worked back up the left to Zielinski, who plays a diagonal ball towards Koulibaly at the far post. Koulibaly heads across the face of goal for Mertens, who chests the ball over the line, but Koulibaly was a mile offside, and the flag goes up accordingly. Napoli don’t bother to argue the toss.
55 min: Arsenal seem happy to sit back and let Napoli pass it around. Because the Gunners are holding their shape, while the hosts are going nowhere.
53 min: Insigne is working hard down this left flank, but nothing’s coming off for him. He’s nearly found by Ruiz after making a very clever run, but Maitland-Niles cuts the ball out. Then Insigne crosses deep for Milik, but that’s easy pickings for Cech.
51 min: Aubameyang threatens to burst down the left but decides to stop and showboat instead. Think an extremely diluted version of Jim Baxter at Wembley in 1967.
49 min: The resulting corner leads to nothing. Meanwhile “what’s happening here?” is a question that Mac Millings finds himself asking a lot. And he’s asking it again, right here, right now. “What’s happening here? My heavenly Hornets gave Arsenal a right ten-man, 0-1 chasing the other day. The Gunners were awful. Do you think the Pozzo family could pull a few strings, and get Watford into Serie A? Because we’re not winning the Premier League any time ever, but I’d settle for a scudetto or two.”
48 min: This is pretty much all over, but it should be really all over now. Lacazette sends Mkhitaryan into space down the right. Mkhitaryan rolls a pass into the centre for Aubameyang, who only has Meret to beat. And he doesn’t. He slams his shot too close to the keeper, who saves spectacularly well, but should never have been given the chance to do so. What a chance to put Arsenal, already a speck on the horizon, totally out of sight.
47 min: Insigne powers his way down the left and cuts a ball abck for Ruiz, who lashes a wild effort miles over the bar. But that was as good an attack as Napoli have launched this evening. Arsenal won’t want to give them a sniff.
And we’re off again! Arsenal get the second half underway. They’ve made no changes. But Napoli have replaced Nikola Maksimovic with Dries Mertens. Will it be enough? Simon McMahon suggests not: “I think Napoli will need to get Maradona into that No.10 shirt for the second half to have any chance of progressing from this tie.”
Half-time task. It only takes three or four seconds, so why not sign up for this?
HALF TIME: Napoli 0-1 Arsenal (agg: 0-3)
There’s just enough time for Kolasinac and Callejon to come together as the pair chase a ball down the middle towards the Arsenal box. There is a bit of contact, a nudge from behind by Kolasinac, and Callejon makes the most of it. But the referee isn’t interested. The whistle goes. Callejon and Koulibaly get up in the referee’s grille and instigate a robust exchange of views. Napoli’s heads have gone; Arsenal walk off contentedly.
45 min +3: Napoli have a throw deep in Arsenal territory. Koscielny stalls them by taking off a boot and putting it back on again. The hosts are livid with the brazen timewasting. A frustrated Allan then runs the ball out of play down the right.
45 min +2: Zielinksi shoots. Deflection. Corner. The ball bounces around in the Arsenal box, and rears up on Lacazette. Napoli demand a penalty for handball, but they’re not getting one.
45 min +1: There will be four added minutes, a result of Ramsey’s hamstring injury. What Napoli would give to grab something back before half-time. Three second-half goals would still be a tall order, but four seems a pipe dream.
45 min: From the left-hand side of his box, Cech clanks a dismal drop kick straight to Zielinski in the centre circle. Zielinski tries to return it into the goal, which is momentarily unguarded. Zielinski doesn’t catch it properly, and Cech can gather. Then he offers the hand of apology to his team-mates.
43 min: Napoli’s frustration is betrayed by Insigne, who tries to handle his way past a midfield challenge then, when the whistle goes for a free kick, blooters the ball away in extreme annoyance. A booking is inevitable.
42 min: Insigne dribbles down the left and loops long for Callejon, who tries to letissier a smooth volley from the edge of the box. He slices it well wide.
41 min: A high ball into the Arsenal box from the left. Callejon tries to guide a header goalwards but it’s always flying miles over the bar. Napoli, that one counter attack apart, have been dismal. Cech has had next to nothing to do.