ATHENS • Arsenal captain Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang admitted he had a flashback of his late miss against Olympiakos in last season’s Europa League when he scored the winner against Benfica that put Arsenal into the last 16 on Thursday.
With an away-goals exit for the second straight season on the cards, the Gunners striker’s 87th-minute header secured Arsenal a 3-2 win return-leg win in Athens for a 4-3 aggregate victory.
It was the forward’s second of the game – a year after he missed a sitter against the Greek outfit with the last kick of the game.
Aubameyang told BT Sport: “I think everybody is happy tonight and definitely I had this (late miss against Olympiakos last season) in my head.
“But this gives me power every day to take the error from the past and transform it into strength. And tonight I’m very happy we won the game.”
Arsenal cut it fine, however, after a dreadful mistake by Dani Ceballos just past the hour mark allowed Rafa Silva to put Benfica 2-1 ahead, meaning Arsenal required two goals to avoid a loss that would have left their season in tatters.
Eleventh in the Premier League and out of the FA Cup, a European exit would have turned up the heat on manager Mikel Arteta.
“Well certainly it keeps the season going in a much better way,” the Spaniard said. “This competition is going to help the Premier League for sure, to maintain everybody together, to have something to play for. Today it would have been really harsh with what has happened in the two legs to be out of the competition.”
Aubameyang put Arsenal ahead from Bukayo Saka’s pass but Benfica levelled through Diogo Goncalvez’s superb free kick.
Ceballos gifted Benfica their second goal but Kieran Tierney’s reply set up a dramatic finish.
Former Arsenal defender Martin Keown believes Aubameyang’s winner could be a turning point for Arsenal in a game that was described by Arteta as a “Cup final”.
“You were looking at the future and thinking what was going to happen to the manager and the players,” Keown told BT Sport. “They were facing real trouble. The course of history changed in a moment there. They have to keep this momentum going.
“There would have been questions ‘is Arteta the right man for the future? I think he is but they have to support him in he summer. Imagine if they had gone out, it would have been very tricky for him.”
REUTERS