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The next time someone tells you a team cannot land players without Champions League football, point them to Arsenal’s last three summers (and creativity).
The Gunners, now in their third Europa League campaign, added Bernd Leno, Sokratis, Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, and Alexandre Lacazette in the first two seasons outside of the UCL.
[ MORE: Klopp “couldn’t afford” Coutinho ]
And of course this year, the Gunners have added three players from UCL outfits: Nicolas Pepe (Lille), David Luiz (Chelsea), and Kieran Tierney (Celtic, has since been knocked out of the tournament).
Arsenal director Josh Kroenke is puffing out his chest a bit, even with the admission that the Gunners are accomplishing their spends by buying players in installments (which takes two willing parties, to be fair). From the BBC:
“This summer, even though we weren’t in a position of strength coming out of Baku, I think there were a few people caught off guard that Arsenal Football Club still has the aura that it does. We’re excited to keep pushing that now and into the future.”
The Gunners face the only other 2-0 in the Premier League side when they visit Liverpool at Anfield on Saturday.
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How close are we to an Alexis Sanchez-Romelu Lukaku reunion in Italy?
Depends if you think about $236,000 a week is a reasonable amount of money to pay a guy to not work for you.
[ MORE: Europa League preview ]
Inter Milan is ready to offer that figure — half Alexis Sanchez’s salary — per week to take the Chilean on loan from Manchester United, but the Red Devils don’t really like the idea of paying the player that much.
We wouldn’t be surprised if Inter wouldn’t want to go much higher than that, and that’s a weight United needs to bear considering they greenlit the wild wages when they sent Henrikh Mkhitaryan to Arsenal in exchange for Sanchez.
The 30-year-old entered the summer with the sixth-highest salary in football. Only Lionel Messi, Cristiano Ronaldo, Neymar, Paul Pogba, and Andres Iniesta make more.
Put in perspective further, Lukaku’s new deal at Inter is reportedly close to $309,000 a week.
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Serie A side Torino is here for the mind games, and claims Wolves will have an unfair advantage due to the referee appointments for Thursday’s Europa League playoff round first leg.
[ MORE: UCL qualifying wrap ]
Wolves will head to the Olimpico di Torino for the first leg, and Torino is reportedly “bewildered” that UEFA has appointed Portuguese referees for the match because Wolves boss Nuno Espirito Santo and seven of his first team players hail from Portugal.
The head referee, Artur Soares Dias, has worked numerous high-profile games deep into the Europa League, Champions League, and EURO qualifying.
Nuno doesn’t care.
“We represent the colours of Wolverhampton, it’s an English team,” he said. “Our native language is English, everybody speaks English to each other. There is no issue.”
Torino has also cruised through the qualifying rounds and has not had the benefit of being tested by league play. Serie A begins this weekend.
Kickoff is at 3 p.m. Thursday, with the second leg at the Molineux set for Aug. 29 at 2:45 p.m. ET. The winner qualifies for the UEL group stage.
Also in action this Thursday are a few North Americans. Among them: Romain Gall is coming off a league goal for Malmo, and may start at home to Israeli Premier League side Bnei Yehuda.
Timothy Chandler remains a part of Eintracht Frankfurt’s crew and will be in France to meet Strasbourg, while Brooklyn-born Canadian striker Jonathan David is with Gent against Rijeka.
The rest of the post may deliver entertainment based on the schedule. The UEL main stage provides some unusual names from the European landscape, so it’s even wilder prior to that.
Thursday’s Europa League playoff round first legs
Astana v. BATE Borisov — 10 a.m. ET
Avan Academy v. Dudelange — 11 a.m. ET
FK Suduva v. Ferencvaros — 1 p.m. ET
Malmo v. Bnei Yehuda — 1 p.m. ET
Feyenoord v. Hapoel Beer-Sheva — 1:30 p.m. ET
Ludogorets v. Maribor — 1:30 p.m. ET
Copenhagen v. Riga — 1:45 p.m. ET
AEK Athens v. Trabzonspor — 2 p.m. ET
Legia Warsaw v. Rangers — 2 p.m. ET
FCSB v. Vitoria — 2:30 p.m. ET
Gent v. Rijeka — 2:30 p.m. ET
PSV Eindhoven v. Apollon Limassol — 2:30 p.m. ET
Strasbourg v. Eintracht Frankfurt — 2:30 p.m. ET
AZ Alkmaar v. Antwerp — 2:30 p.m. ET
Celtic v. AIK — 2:45 p.m. ET
Linfield v. Qarabag — 2:45 p.m. ET
Braga v. Spartak Moscow — 2:45 p.m. ET
Espanyol v. Zorya — 3 p.m. ET
Torino v. Wolves — 3 p.m. ET
Partizan v. Molde — 3 p.m. ET
Slovan Bratislava v. PAOK — 3 p.m. ET
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A day after three UEFA Champions League matches yielded just two total goals, the dam broke open across Europe.
[ MORE: Tuesday’s UCL wrap ]
Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiacos cruised into the driver’s seat after multi-goal shutout home wins ahead next week’s second legs, while Young Boys and Red Star Belgrade thrilled in a 2-2 draw on Wednesday.
Olympiacos 4-0 Krasnodar
Lazar Randelovic scored two times in seven minutes as Olympiacos smashed open its playoff round tie with Krasnodar at Karaiskakis Stadium on Wednesday.
Miguel Guerrero and Daniel Podence also scored for the Greeks, whose lead was just 1-0 at halftime.
Dinamo Zagreb 2-0 Rosenborg
The Croatian powers got their goals in the firs half hour, with Bruno Petkovic converting an 8th minute penalty and Mislav Orsic rounding out the scoring in the 28th.
Young Boys 2-2 Red Star Belgrade
A combined 40 shots graced the Stade de Suisse in Switzerland, with the hosts taking 27 as well as an early lead. It was 1-1 after 18 minutes and the visitors took their only lead of the match in the 46th minute.
Guillaume Hoarau converted a 76th minute penalty to lower the damage heading to Serbia, and Red Star will be grateful for some fine saves coming from keeper Milan Borjan.
The Canadian backstop was very…
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