Arsenal stunned, Chelsea beat Malmo

Belarus, February 15 

Arsenal suffered a shock 1-0 defeat at BATE Borisov on a night forward Alexandre Lacazette will want to forget after being sent off late on, while Chelsea, Inter Milan and Napoli all won away in Europa League last-32 first-leg ties on Thursday.

Arsenal had scored 10 goals in two matches against BATE Borisov in the same competition in 2017 but never looked like being as prolific in the freezing temperatures of Belarus.

BATE took the lead when Stanislav Dragun nodded a free-kick past Arsenal goalkeeper Peter Cech seconds before halftime after Lacazette put a header wide midway through the first half.

The Frenchman thought he had made up for his miss 10 minutes after the break but his effort was ruled out for offside. To compound his misery Lacazette was shown a red card five minutes from time for felling Aleksandar Filipovic with an elbow after the defender held him back and was also booked.

Arsenal’s London neighbours Chelsea did much better, overcoming Malmo 2-1 in Sweden. Ross Barkley gave the 2013 winners the lead when he stabbed home from close range on the half-hour and Oliver Giroud got his fifth goal in four Europa League matches with a slick back heel from a Willian cross 14 minutes into the second half.

Malmo’s Anders Christiansen scored a lovely goal on the break to make it 2-1 but the Swedes could not level the tie. — Reuters

UEFA Europa League

• Villarreal bt Sporting 1-0 
• Napoli bt FC Zurich 3-1 
• Inter Milan bt Rapid 1-0
• Valencia bt Celtic 2-0 
• Chelsea bt Malmo 2-1
• BATE bt Arsenal 1-0