Emery realistic about winning ‘tough’ Europa League

Arsenal comfortably negated the potential banana-skin in BATE Borisov as the Gunners beat the Belarusian champions 3-0 at the Emirates in their Europa League second-leg.

The north London club recovered from a first-leg defeat and have been drawn against French side Rennes in the next round.

Unai Emery’s team dominated the game against their inferior opposition but did struggle to score from open play, only an own-goal from Zahkar Volkov being scored from open-play over the two legs.

When asked if his previous wins in the competitions with Sevilla meant the Gunners were favourites to win the Europa League, with the Gunners best hope of Champions League football next season coming through continental qualification, Emery was quick to defend the quality of the competition and it’s participants.

“It’s very very difficult to win this competition. I won this competition many times and for example the last three [winners]were Manchester United, Atletico Madrid and Sevilla.”

But he was also adamant that his Arsenal side had enough to win the Europa League, a feat Emery achieved three times with Sevilla.

“Yes we can and maybe if we [are in]the 16, then one is Arsenal. A lot of team they want the same. We need to feel this competition a lot and create a big atmosphere in this competition with our supporters and this feeling can give us more opportunities after our quality, our capacity as a team and we need to feel stronger in this competition.”

Although they didn’t score much in open play, Arsenal did score two headers directly from corners. After a video of Unai Emery swinging in crosses during Arsenal training surfaced before the game, the Spaniard was asked if was to take credit for the goals.

“Today it was players. In the video I was doing [the crosses]and [they]are not scoring. Today they are, because the crosses are much better!”

Arsenal look to continue their winning momentum in their match against Southampton at the Emirates on Sunday.