Arsenal outclassed Serie A outfit Napoli in the Europa League quarter-final, goals from Aaron Ramsey and Lucas Torreira helping Unai Emery’s side to a win.
Carlo Ancelotti insists the Europa League quarter-final is not done and dusted just yet, despite his Napoli side going down 2-0 to Arsenal on Thursday, while speaking to Sky Sport Italia (11 April, 10:00pm).
The second-placed Serie A side were expected to pose plenty of problems to the Gunners when they travelled to the Emirates but they were far from their best, gifting Arsenal two first-half goals through Aaron Ramsey and a deflected Lucas Torreira drive.
But while Napoli were surprisingly error-strewn, they still threatened an away strike on a number of occasions with the hosts struggling notably with the pace of Lorenzo Insigne down the left side.
And the former Chelsea and Real Madrid boss believes Arsenal’s oft-shaky defending should give his team more than enough encouragement ahead of next week’s second leg at the Stadio San Paolo.
“Arsenal do not seem like an impenetrable team. We had the chances and also took control of the game in the second half. We need to play with intensity and sharpness, not frenetically,” Ancelotti said.
“It was a difficult test anyway, it’s more difficult now, but still certainly not impossible. It was a good second half, even if we ran a few risks on the counter, but we need to shake off this timidity we had in the first half.
“As I said, we’ve got a chance to go through, Arsenal are anything but impenetrable at the back and have always conceded goals on their travels, so we must retain faith and optimism.”
Arsenal’s dreadful away form is well documented and, if they defend like they did in previous Europa League encounters against Rennes and BATE Borisov, there is no reason why Insigne,
Dries Mertens and 19-goal top scorer Arkadiusz Milik (below) can cause plenty of problems in Naples.
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