Arsenal Romped in a first leg victory 7-1 over PSV Eindhoven in the last 16 of Champions LeagueEssentially sealing their passage to the quarter -finals of the process.
The Gunners were 3-1 in the break, competing in a three-go goal thanks to Jurrien Timber’s header and strikes by Ethan Nwaneri and Mikel Merino.
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Noa Lang’s sentence threatened to cause a return to PSV, but only for a while, as Arsenal came to fire from the blocks to the second half to put the tie far beyond their Dutch opponents.
The goals by Martin Odegaard and Leandro Trossard put the tie far beyond the hosts within three minutes of the reboot, before Arsenal’s captain put a second and put Riccardo Calafiori to hit his home for Mikel Arteta.
While it was not missing competitiveness, it was a game full of incident, and the most challenged speech came after the third goal of Arsenal of the night, which underwent a large VAR control.
In a comic defense of the PSV, Mikel Merino was endowed with the opportunity to overcome Arsenal’s lead, after his ball broke in the penalty area, taking easily.
But the target was doubt about four minutes, as VAR officials checked for a possible offside from the Spaniard in accumulation.
The ball played in the direction of Merino by Jurrien Timber, but was blocked by defender PSV Ryan Flamingo before reaching the improvised Arsenal striker, who was offside when the ball played.
However, the game continued, and it was Flamingo who gave Merino a free shot after losing his base in the box.
But the decision to allow the target caused some dispute, with expert Wayne Rooney and Theo Walcott disagree with the decision.
Former Premier League referee Mark Clattenburg tried to explain why the target was given through a subjective call from the VAR team.
Speaking of the live Amazon prime video coverage, he said: “It’s a very subjective call when the ball really played. We all know that Merino is in an offside position.
“I agree with Wayne that he is blocking the ball and therefore, if he is blocking the ball, he is not controlled and therefore should have been offside.
“(VAR) believes that he deliberately played the ball with this sliding action to block the ball, he thinks it is a deliberate game and that’s why they gave the goal, but I don’t agree with it.”
Arsenal Welcome PSV to Emirates Stadium on Wednesday, March 12th for the second leg, with Real Madrid or Atletico Madrid waiting for the quarter -finals.
The Champions League holders will take a slim driver at the Metropolitano Stadium, with Brahim Diaz winner delivering the side of Carlo Ancelotti a 2-1 victory to Santiago Bernabe.
