Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said he would prefer to avoid a Europa League quarter-final against Atletico Madrid after beating AC Milan in the last 16.<\/p>\n
England striker Danny Welbeck scored twice – either side of a long-range strike from Granit Xhaka – as the\u00a0Gunners won the second leg 3-1.<\/p>\n
Hakan Calhanoglu had opened the scoring for Milan, but the Italian side fell to a 5-1 aggregate defeat.<\/p>\n
“We would certainly want to avoid Atletico Madrid,” said Wenger.<\/p>\n
The draw for the quarter-finals – which features teams from eight countries – will take place on Friday at 12:00 GMT.<\/p>\n
This was Arsenal’s third win in a week after their first-leg victory in Milan and Sunday’s 3-0\u00a0Premier League defeat of Watford.<\/p>\n
Prior to victory at the San Siro, the Gunners had lost four successive games in all competitions.<\/p>\n
“It’s much better. We needed that to recover from our results,” Wenger said.<\/p>\n
“It shows how the team has responded. We had a difficult game but in the end we won it. If we have the results and the way to play football, the crowds will be behind us.”<\/p>\n
Turkish international Calhanoglu produced a stunning finish from 30 yards to give the Italians the lead.<\/p>\n
The Gunners levelled within four minutes through Welbeck, who was controversially awarded a penalty after going down under minimal contact from Ricardo Rodriguez.<\/p>\n
Xhaka’s long-range effort bobbled into the net for Arsenal’s second after poor goalkeeping by Milan’s highly rated Gianluigi Donnarumma, before Welbeck headed in a third.<\/p>\n
“It was an open game. We played backwards a bit too much in the first half to protect the result. We played a very good side,” said Wenger.<\/p>\n
“We have to improve defensively, but overall we are team with technical quality which is more attack-minded.<\/p>\n
“We struggle a bit more when we have to defend. We finished the game more compact and more solid.”<\/p>\n
–<\/p>\n
Source: BBC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger said he would prefer to avoid a Europa League quarter-final against Atletico Madrid after beating AC Milan in the last 16. England striker Danny Welbeck scored twice – either side of a long-range strike from Granit Xhaka – as the\u00a0Gunners won the second leg 3-1. Hakan Calhanoglu had opened the scoring […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":73980,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[142],"tags":[7800,17954,396,2749],"yoast_head":"\n