Europa League Wrap : Arsenal's Iwobi, Slavia's Olayinka, Villarreal's Chukwueze Subbed In; Young GK Okonkwo Not In 18

Published: April 18, 2019

A round-up of the performances of Nigerian players in the quarterfinals of the UEFA Europa League on Thursday, April 18.

At the Stadio San Paolo, Naples, Alex Iwobi was a 68th minute substitute as Arsenal beat Napoli 1-0 to advance 3-0 on aggregate.

Frenchman Alexandre Lacazette decided the outcome of the game, curling a direct free-kick into the back of the net from all of 30 meters nine minutes before half-time.

Young goalkeeper Arthur Okonkwo traveled with the Gunners squad to Italy but presumably watched the game from the stands as he was not in the match day 18.

In a seven-goal thriller at Stamford Bridge, former Dream Team invitee Peter Olayinka hopped off the bench in the 52nd minute as Slavia Prague lost 4-3 to Chelsea.

Pedro scored a brace for the Londoners and Giroud netted his tenth Europa League goal this term, while Tomas Soucek and Petr Sevcik (2) got on the scoresheet for the Czech team.

The injured Tyronne Ebuehi has not been registered for the Europa League and was not in the Benfica side that lost 2-0 at Eintracht Frankfurt.

Goals from Filip Kostic and Sebastian Rode saw the Germans advance via the away goals rule.

At the Estadio de Mestalla in Spain, Samuel Chukwueze was introduced in the 46th minute as Villarreal suffered a 2-0 loss at the hands of Valencia.

Toni Lato netted his first senior goal to give the hosts the lead on 13 minutes before Parejo scored via a free-kick eight minutes after the restart to give the hosts a 5-1 aggregate win. They face Arsenal in the semifinals.

Ifeanyi Emmanuel