Europa League round 16: First leg advantage for Arsenal and Atlético Madrid

Arsenal snapped a five-game winless streak by winning 3-1 away at AC Milan’s San Siro stadium in one of eight Round of 16 Europa League first leg encounters played on Thursday evening.

Although Gattuso’s wards started brightly, Henrikh Mkhtaryan opened the scoring in the 15th minute when he curled beautifully into the top corner.

The fallen Milan giants fell further behind in first half added time, Mesut Ozil’s second assist of the night freed Aaron Ramsey, and the Welshman rounded keeper Donnarumma before tapping into into an empty net.

The North London club, who had Alex Iwobi on the bench, contained the Rossoneri throughout the encounter and could have added to their advantage but for poor decision making in the attacking third.

The defeat was AC Milan’s first in 13 matches, while Arsenal’s first win in five games earned Wenger’s team a commanding lead going into the second leg at the Emirates stadium next week.

In Spain, Atlético Madrid humbled Russian Premier League leaders, Lokomotiv Moscow 3-0 at the Wanda Metropolitano stadium. Spanish midfielder Saul Niguez blasted in the opener 22 minutes into the first half, and former Chelsea striker Diego Costa stabbed home the second from a rebound early in the second half. Koke added the icing on the cake in the 90th minute to hand the former Champions League finalists a commanding lead going to Russia next week.

On a bad night for Russian clubs, Nigerian winger Ahmed Musa played for 87 minutes but could not influence the outcome of the match as his club CSKA Moscow were narrowly defeated 1-0 at home by French club Olympique Lyon. The only goal of the game was scored by Brazilian journeyman, Marcelo Guedes via an assist from former Manchester United winger, Memphis Depay to hand the former Ligue 1 champions a win and vital away going back to their home.

In Germany, Austrian Champions Red Bull Salzburg stunned Borussia Dortmund and their Signal Iduna Park’s famous “yellow wall” fans with two goals in seven second half minutes through Serbian midfielder Valon Berisha. Andre Schurrle pulled a goal back but the shell-shocked Germans could not complete the comeback.

In other matches on the night, Lazio- perhaps still in shock from the death of Italian defender Davide Astori- were forced to a 2-2 draw by Dynamo Kiev in Rome, Sporting Lisbon of Portugal hold the advantage after defeating Czech champions Viktoria Plzen 2-0, while Zenit St. Petersburg completed a bad night for Russian clubs in Europe with a 2-1 loss to entertaining and fearless German club Red Bull Salzburg.

ROUND-OF-16 FIRST LEG RESULTS

Atlético Madrid 3-0 Lokomotiv Moscow

CSKA Moscow 0-1 Olympic Lyon

AC Milan 0-2 Arsenal FC

Borussia Dortmund 1-2 Red Bull Salzburg

S.S.S. Lazio 2-2 Dynamo Kiev

Olympic Marseille 3-1 Athletic Bilbao

Red Bull Leipzig 2-1 Zenit St. Petersburg

Sporting Lisbon 2-0 Viktoria Plzen