Perez hat-trick sinks Basel to send Gunners through as group winners while City are held at home
Arsenal have topped their Champions League group for the first time since the 2011/12 season after a Lucas Perez hat-trick helped them beat Basel, who missed the chance to claim a place in the Europa League at the hands of Ludogorets.
Perez nets his first ever Champions League goal
Going into the final game of group A Arsenal were level with Paris Saint Germain on 11 points, but the Premier League side managed to finish 2 points clear at the top of the group as PSG only managed a home draw with Ludogorets.
Arsenal knew they had to better the result of PSG to finish as group winners and they made the perfect start in Switzerland after Kieran Gibbs teed up Perez to score his first goal in the Champions league. Sanchez played a delightful ball over the defensive line for Gibbs, who layed on the ball to Perez to finish from close range.
Basel had the ball in the net with the score at 1-0, but the offside flag denied them an equaliser. Meanwhile Ludogorets shocked PSG by taking the lead in Paris, through a header from Misidzhan on 15 minutes. And seconds later Perez gave Arsenal a 2-0 advantage in the other game in group A to put worry lines on Unai Emery's face.
Arsenal killed the game off in the first 8 minutes of the second period as Sanchez assisted Perez to score his hat-trick with a week-footed low drive, and Sanchez also helped create the fourth as his ball released Mesut Ozil, and the German cleverly side footed the ball for Alex Iwobi to score his first of the season and his first goal since March. Sanchez and Ozil have been influential in the Champions League this season, with the Chilean netting twice and setting up 4 and Ozil scoring 4, including a hat-trick against Ludogorets, and assisting 3.
In Paris the home side were struggling to break down a stubborn Ludogorets defense but got the breakthrough on the hour mark thanks to a spectacular Edinson Cavani bicycle kick, which gave him his 6th goal in 6 group games. But they were pegged back by a goal from Wanderson, who scored after being set up by the impressive Cafu. They may have thought that would have been enough for a famous victory over the French side, who enjoyed the lions share of the ball and managed 27 attempts at the goal. PSG needed the change something if they were going to equalise, as they had 13 shots blocked and only managed 6 on target, until they made three late subs bringing on Jese, Aurier and Kurzawa, and the latter set up Angel Di Maria to prevent a shocking defeat.
A dissapointed Thiago Silva shows his frustration as his side failed to secure top spot in Group A
Arsenal now have the advantage of being the home side in the second leg and possibly getting an easier draw than they have had in the past 5 seasons where they have exited at the round of 16 stage. However they could face Bayern Munich who finished 2nd in their group behind Atletico Madrid despite winning against them at home last night. The finalists from 2 of the last 3 seasons won all of their first 5 games in the group but were defeated by Bayern to miss out on a 100% record. Arsenal could face either Benfica who finished second behind Napoli after they lost to the Italians in the final game of group B, or Leverkusen, who will finish 2nd in group E whatever happens in their game against group winners Monaco tonight.
In group C, an unrecognisable Manchester City team drew 1-1 with Celtic, through English youngster Patrick Roberts who incidentally is on-loan at Celtic from City. He beat Gael Clichy, who struggled to cope with Roberts for much of the first half, and powered a strike past Willy Caballero to give Celtic the lead in only the 4th minute. It was another goal conceded by City down to poor defending, Fernando played a poor ball back to Caballero who could only clear to Rogic whose strike hit the Spanish goalkeeper and was cleared for a throw-in. As City fans groaned Celtic took the throw which made its way to goalscorer Roberts. City responded well with Gundogan playing a positive forward pass to Nolito, who followed suit by threading an exquisite through ball to Kelechi Iheanacho, and the prolific young Nigerian fired the ball past Gordon to show Guardiola that he is the perfect replacement for the suspended Aguero. A good night for fans of Nigeria, with two of their rising stars Iwobi and Iheanacho both netting.
Celtic were already out at the start of play but can take a lot from the group stage, despite not winning, they drew both games against Man City and managed an away draw with Borussia Monchengladbach. Monchengladbach had already secured third spot and entry to the Europa League knock out phase, while Barcelona had secured top spot. A Lionel Messi opener gave Barca the lead on 15 minutes and marked the Argentinian's 10th goal in the group phase making him the top scorer so far ahead on Cavani on 6. Arda Turan started ahead of Neymar and bagged a hat-trick which took his tally of 4 CL goals for the season. Barcelona, like Arsenal, can now feel confident ahead of the round of 16 draw on Monday.
