Champions League: Arsenal Delight, Liverpool Denied

Cesc Fabregas scored two before being substituted as Arsenal romped past AZ Alkmaar 4-1 at the Emirates to all but secure their place in the last sixteen of the Champions League.

The Spanish skipper opened the scoring after 25 minutes, cutting inside from the left and shooting through the defender’s legs to beat Sergio Romero embarrassingly at his near post.

Andrey Arshavin played a through ball between the Alkmaar centre halves for fleet-of-foot Samir Nasri to double the Gunners’ advantage before half time.

Nasri shimmied between two defenders on the edge of the area before slotting into the bottom right-hand corner to score his first goal since breaking his leg in July.

And the little Russian played a hand in Fabregas’s second, feeding his overlap on the left to finish a flowing counter-attack after 52 minutes.

Fabregas opened his body as if to shoot across Romero before rotating his hips to lift the ball over the keeper into the roof of the net.

Arsenal’s fluid midfield continued to press forward and find space in behind the Dutch visitors’ back four.

The counter-attack proved most fruitful however as the Londoners bagged their fourth. Eduardo was involved in a tussle on the halfway-line before back-heeling the ball for Arshavin to maraud down the right wing.

The former Zenit St. Petersburg midfielder squared for a hat-trick of assists as Abou Diaby gathered with his left foot before side-footing across the keeper.

Substitute Jeremain Lens managed a late consolation for Ronald Kaeman’s side, bursting through on the right wing before beating an off-balance Manuel Almunia at his near post.

Arsenal are sitting pretty on ten points and only an unlikely combination of results for Olympiakos and Standard Liege, and the Gunners losing both their remaining fixtures, would halt their progress to the knockout stages.

Lisandro’s dinked last-minute equaliser meanwhile cruelly denied under-fire Rafa Benitez and Liverpool a chance to revitalise their challenge for European silverware.

Lisandro’s goal, in front of a box office Stade Gerland crowd, put Lyon through as current leaders of Group D on ten points with Fiorentina second on nine.

The Reds lag behind on four points with only two games to salvage progression.

Substitute Ryan Babel gave the Reds the lead after 83 minutes, ghosting inside from the left before hammering the ball into the top left corner with his right boot.

Liverpool were otherwise toothless up front as Fernando Torres struggled throughout with a hernia problem.

Andriy Voronin missed the most gilt-edged of chances when he shot straight at Hugo Lloris when put through one-on-one by Javier Mascherano’s long ball over the top.

Defensive frailty cost the Kop dear ultimately and Liverpool will have to rely on others’ failings to join Manchester United and Chelsea, not to mention Arsenal most probably, in the next stage.

Wednesday’s only Premiership match saw Zavon Hines lift West Ham out of the relegation zone as his close range finish secured their 2-1 win over ten-man Aston Villa.

Habib Beye was sent off after 85 minutes before Hines’s latched onto Scott Parker’s pass inside the six-yard box and supplied the finish.

Mark Noble earlier stroked home his penalty to put the Hammers 1-0 up at half time before Ashley’s Young cross-cum-shot curled in.

Crowd trouble marred Rangers’ clash at Romanian champions Unirea Urziceni, though a late Marius Onofras had already taken the gloss of Lee McCulloch’s long-range opener in the 1-1 draw. The Scots must now beat Stuttgart at Ibrox to qualify.

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