Europa League final: Arsenal fans wearing Henrikh Mkhitaryan shirts stopped by police in Baku
The Armenian winger chose not to travel to Azerbaijan due to fears for his safety
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Your support makes all the difference.Footage has emerged showing Azerbaijani police stopping Arsenal fans wearing Henrikh Mkhitaryan shirts on the streets in Baku, ahead of the Europa League final against Chelsea.
Mkhitaryan chose not to travel with the Arsenal squad due to fears for his safety, owing to his native Armenia’s conflict with Azerbaijan, despite the local FA insisting he would be safe to make the trip.
Speaking ahead of the match, both Granit Xhaka and Sokratis Papastathopoulos said that Mkhitaryan’s absence had provided them with extra motivation to win the Europa League in his honour, while Bernd Leno claimed the situation was a “scandal” earlier this week.
“Of course we are disappointed he’s not here but I think we spoke a lot about Mkhitaryan, and a lot of political things, and it’s time to speak about football,” Xhaka said on Tuesday.
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“He’s very important for us, and we want to give him a trophy tomorrow.
“We’ve been twice in a row in the Europa League, and a club like Arsenal has to be in the Champions League.
“It’s an amazing and important game for us, because we want to give the club and the fans the Champions League back.”
Sokratis, who wrote a social media post in support of Mkhitaryan’s decision, added: “We’ve had five or six years together, I know him very well, we are good friends.
“So I just wrote what I feel. But we have also to play for him and for the players who are injured, and tomorrow if we win this game, it’s also for them.”
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