Football Results

Although we expected a great uncertainty in this duel of the round of 16 of Europa League Arsenal from London had fairly easily won by 2-0 at the San Siro seven days ago, which puts Milan in practically impossible situation. However, their current form in the Serie A suggests that Milan will not surrender in advance, especially as we know that their manager is combative Gattuso.

Arsenal

On the other hand it is hard to expect that Arsenal drops such big advantage from the first match in front of its fans, especially as after victory of 2-0 at the San Siro it finally won full three points in the English Premier League as it won Watford 3-0 at home. With those two victories the Gunners finally put an end to very unpleasant four-game losing streak, where the most painful was the one suffered at the Wembley in the final of League Cup by Manchester City 3-0.

Since we are talking about the English Premier League it should be said that Arsenal has very slim chance to reach the Champions League given their current backlog of even 12 points behind 4th-placed Liverpool. It leaves the Europa League as the only avenue to reach that objective. Let’s add that besides forward Aubameyang, who is not eligible to play in the Europa League, the 2nd leg with Milan will skip injured stopper Mustafi, midfielder Cazorla and forward Lacazette, while manager Wagner will probably not risk with not fully ready defenders Bellerin and Monreal.

Probable lineups Arsenal: Ospina – Maitland-Niles, Holding, Koscielny, Kolasinac – Ramsey, Xhaka, Wilshere – Mkhitaryan, Ozil – Welbeck

AC Milan

Regarding the guests from Milan, we have said in the introduction they have almost mission impossible at the Emirates stadium in London on Thursday evening as they have to annul minus of two goals from the 1st leg with Arsenal played at the San Siro. However, their fans can find encouragement in Milan’s results made recently in the Serie A where this team have eight-game unbeaten streak of even seven wins and one draw. The positive series allowed Milan to again joins the race for positions that lead to the Champions League as they are now just six points above them and Milan has played one match fewer than 4th-placed Lazio.

The Rossoneri routinely won Genoa 1-0 away last weekend which extended their positive series in Italian competitions to 11 wins and 3 draws, as in the meantime they reached the final of the Coppa Italia where will face Juventus. Now, Milan will quite surely give its best in this 2nd leg of the round of 16, which will skip only from before injured defenders Conti and Abate.

Probable lineups AC Milan: G. Donnarumma – Calabria, Bonucci, Romagnoli, Rodriguez – Kessie, Biglia, Bonaventura – Suso, Cutrone, Calhanoglu

Verdict:

Regardless that Arsenal has advantage of even two goals before the 2nd leg that will take place at its Emirates stadium we believe that team led by manager Gattus will not surrender till the final whistle, which is why we have opted here for a pick with goals on both sides.

Pick:  both teams to score 1.64 - 64/100 @1XBet