It is unfortunate that Arsenal’s Martin Odegaard returned to scoring ways against in the first leg of Round 16 of the Europa League tie against Olympiacos.
The Norwegian’s last goal was over a year ago for Real Sociedad. His 34th minute strike from 20m meant that Olympiacos was on the backfoot for much of the game at the at the Karaiskakis Stadium in Athens.
Earlier in the game Olympiacos keeper Jose Sa brilliantly diverted an Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang header.
As in past games between the two sides, Arsenal’s nemesis Youssouf El Arabi restored matters 13 minutes into the second half with a long-range effort.
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In achieving parity, the Greeks unsettled the Gunners who once again had problems building up their attacks from the back. However, the Red-Whites were unable to capitalise on lax play especially by Arsenal defender David Luiz and Odegaard himself.
El Arabi missed a chance to put Olympiacos ahead and 12 minutes later Arsenal’s Brazilian recruit Gabriel (do Santos Magalhaes) headed in from a corner from another Brazilian, Willian, to restore the lead in the 79th minute.
Six minutes later, substitute Mohamed Elneny put matters beyond doubt when he scored Arsenal’s third goal with a long-range effort.
With three away goals in the bag, Arsenal take a formidable lead to the second leg at the Emirates stadium in London next Thursday. But their defensive lapses may yet give Olympiacos hope of unsettling the Gunners as they did last year.
“I’m really pleased with the result, with the goals we scored and the way we played in big moments,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta told The Guardian. “But as well we have to be very honest with ourselves that we gave three [chances] to our opponents and they scored one. To go to the next level we have to be more ruthless and kill games.”