Result: Rapid Wien 1-2 Arsenal
Date: 22 October 2020
Venue: Allianz Stadion
Arsenal started their UEFA Europa League campaign with a come-from-behind 2-1 win over Rapid Vienna on Thursday evening.
The Gunners made a number of changes, with new signing Thomas Partey getting his first start alongside Mohamed Elneny in midfield while Alexandre Lacazette and Eddie Nketiah were both recalled upfront, with Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang starting on the bench.
Mikel Arteta's charges had a lively start, with Partey linking up well with the attack but they were yet to carve out clear chances.
The Austrian side were threatening on counter-attacks and Taxiarchis Fountas nearly broke away just after the half-hour mark from a diagonal pass but Partey made a crucial interception to snuff out danger.
Ercan Kara came close to breaking the deadlock just before the break after taking Marcel Ritzmaier's cross on his stride on the edge of the box but he dragged his shot narrowly wide.
The Gunners started the second second quite sloppy after Fountas grabbed the lead for Rapid five minutes after the break after intercepting a ball played from the back by goalkeeper Bernd Leno and slammed home from close range.
Leno made the same mistake again on the hour-mark, with Rapid pressing them high inside the box but the German redeemed himself to parry away Fountas' scuffed shot.
However, the English side had a good attacking spell after that, especially Aubameyang was introduced as David Luiz eventually levelled matters in the last 20 minutes with glancing header from Nicolas Pepe's free-kick.
Aubameyang gave Arsenal the lead in the last quarter of an hour with a tap-in in after a square pass by Hector Bellerin, who beat the offside trap to go through on the right side.
Arteta's troops were finding chances on the break to kill off the game with the third goal in the dying minutes but in the end, they did just enough to clinch all the three points.
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