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UCL: Arsenal Humbles Dortmund With A 2-0 Win, To Qualify For Last 16

Published

10 years ago

November 26, 2014

Arsenal qualified for the knockout stages of the Champions League for the 15th successive season when they ended Borussia Dortmund’s 100 percent record in Group D with a 2-0 win at the Emirates Stadium on Wednesday.
The hosts needed only 73 seconds to take the lead with 21-year-old French striker Yaya Sanogo scoring his first goal for the club and the Gunners sealed victory when Alexis Sanchez curled in a wonderful strike from 20 metres.
It was his third goal in five Champions League appearances in the competition proper for Arsenal, the same total he managed in 24 games for Barcelona.
Borussia, who had already secured their place in the last 16, top the table with 12 points from their five games, but Arsenal can now pip them to first place if they win their last match at Galatasaray and Borussia fail to beat Anderlecht, who like Galatasaray, are eliminated.
Sanogo took less than two minutes to ease some of the nerves at the Emirates, caused by their collapse from 3-0 to 3-3 in their last Group D match against Anderlecht three weeks ago.
He scored with a fine goal, converting after a neat one-two with Santi Cazorla, back-heeling the ball to the Spanish midfielder and then running on for the return.
For a team that had already qualified, Dortmund, needing only a point to seal first place, attacked at every opportunity with right-back Lukasz Piszczek at the heart of their first real attempt after 20 minutes.
His low drive across goal was just out of the reach of the stretching Ciro Immobile who had the goal at his mercy.
Henrikh Mkhitaryan then forced Arsenal reserve keeper Emiliano Martinez, playing in place of the injured Wojciech Szczesny, into a smart save six minutes before the break after a good Dortmund build-up.
Both teams maintained their attacking tempo after the break and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain went close to an audacious goal after 55 minutes when his brilliantly lob crashed back from the crossbar with Roman Weidenfeller beaten.
Weidenfeller was beaten again two minutes later but this time the ball ended in the back of the net when Sanchez collected a pass from Cazorla and curled the ball home to seal the points for the home side.