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As it happenedended1550217687

Ross Barkley and Olivier Giroud see Chelsea win in Malmo

The Blues hold the advantage after the first leg

Kishan Vaghela
Thursday 14 February 2019 20:57 GMT
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Maurizio Sarri previews Chelsea's Europa League clash with Malmo

Chelsea hold the advantage after the first leg of the Europa League last-32 tie with Malmo.

Ross Barkley opened the scoring in southern Sweden before Olivier Giroud doubled the lead in the second-half. The hosts grabbed a goal back late to give them a foothold ahead of next week's second leg, however.

Here's how it played out:


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  ↵Welcome along to our live coverage of the night's hot Europa League action. Kishan will be here shortly with all the team news and build-up, but in the meantime here's the latest from the Arsenal camp: 

Lawrence Ostlere14 February 2019 15:06
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The Arsenal team news is in!

Vithushan Ehantharajah14 February 2019 17:00
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Full team news:

Bate Borisov (4-3-3) Scherbitski; Rios, Volkov, Filipenko, Filipovic; Baga, Dragun, Hleb; Milic, Skavysh, Stasevich.

Substitutes: Chichkan, Yablonski, Berezkin, Dubajic, Simovic, Moukam, Bessmertny.

Arsenal (3-4-2-1) Cech; Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal, Maitland-Niles, Guendouzi, Xhaka, Kolasinac; Mkhitaryan, Iwobi; Lacazette.

Substitutes: Leno, Elneny, Torreira, Lichtsteiner, Aubameyang, Suarez, Nketiah.

Referee Srdjan Jovanovic (Serbia)

Vithushan Ehantharajah14 February 2019 17:01
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Confirmation then that Alex Hleb, previously of Arsenal, will start tonight against his former team.

Vithushan Ehantharajah14 February 2019 17:05
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It's a glorious zero degrees currently in Borisov, but having travelled to Vorskla Poltava in Kiev earlier in the season, Unai Emery sees the conditions as no excuse should Arsenal fail here.

Kishan Vaghela14 February 2019 17:12
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They can't buy one in the Premier League at the moment but....

Kishan Vaghela14 February 2019 17:17
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Of course, this is not the first time the sides have faced each other in the competition, with the sides meeting in the group stages in last year's Europa League.

Shkodran Mustafi and Ainsley Maitland-Niles are the sole survivors this evening from the Gunners' previous trip to Borisov, which saw the visitors run out 4-2 winners thanks to a Theo Walcott double, a Rob Holding goal and an Olivier Giroud penalty. 

Kishan Vaghela14 February 2019 17:23
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Another duo who were picked in September 2017 and are not part of the squad tonight are Aaron Ramsey and Mesut Ozil.

The Welshman, who announced his summer transfer to Juventus this week, is still missing with a knee problem while the German, whose future at the club is also uncertain, is still missing with illness despite taking part in training. 

It's a situation with Ozil that former defender Martin Keown has called "embarrassing" on BT Sport, as the German misses his 100th game of his Arsenal career.

Kishan Vaghela14 February 2019 17:31
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  ↵And here are those highlights from 18 months ago in Belarus.

Kishan Vaghela14 February 2019 17:41
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It may not be the conditions up above that may stall Arsenal tonight after all......

Kishan Vaghela14 February 2019 17:44

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