Europa League Semi-Finals
May 2, 2019
Arsenal 3-1 Valencia
Arsenal – Alexandre Lacazette 18’ 26’ Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang 90+1’
Valencia – Mouctar Diakhaby 11’
Eintracht Frankfurt 1-1 Chelsea
Eintracht Frankfurt – Luka Jovic 23’
Chelsea – Pedro Rodriguez 45’
Advantage to the Premier League team. Chelsea and Arsenal avoided defeat and will probably get the benefit of the away goal rule in the second leg fixtures.
Arsenal took a ‘3-1’ first-leg home victory by came from a goal down to beat Valencia. Alexandre Lacazette scored the winning goal and the equalizing goal in the first half of the match, before Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang made it a confident victory with a late injury-time goal in the second-half.
Chelsea was the better side against Frankfurt. To take a ‘1-1’ draw and an ‘away-goal’ to Stamford Bridge put Chelsea in the driving seat of the tie, despite finishing with a draw.
A lot will be required from Valencia at the Mestalla to overturn the deficit against Arsenal.
Eintracht Frankfurt will go to Stamford Bridge knowing that a goal is needed to keep the tie going; this won’t change even if Chelsea is first to take the lead.
