Arsenal Beat Wolfsburg to Clinch Emirates Cup


By Brent    27-Jul-2015 12:56 UTC+02:00
Arsenal's impressive youngster Jeff Reine-Adelaide set-up his sides goal in their 1-0 victory over VfL Wolfsburg. Picture Credit : 101 Great Goals

Arsenal’s impressive youngster Jeff Reine-Adelaide set-up his sides goal in their 1-0 victory over VfL Wolfsburg in the Emirates Cup. Picture Credit : 101 Great Goals

Arsenal secured a 1-0 win over German side WfL Wolfsburg on Sunday evening, to win the Emirates Cup. Theo Walcott scored the decisive goal in the 50th minute after he was brilliantly set-up by highly rated youngster Jeff Reine-Adelaide. The last time Arsenal won the pre-season tournament, was in 2010.

It was high tempo start with both sides stroking the ball across the lush outfield but neither side had any meaningful attempts on goal early on. Wolfsburg started slightly better than the hosts and in the 18th minute nearly opened the scoring, when a shot from a corner was narrowly deflected wide. Arsenal had their first meaningful chance in the 21st minute, when Walcott received a through ball from Mesut Ozil but the speedy forwards shot was saved by Wolfsburg goalkeeper, Diego Benaglio. Wolfsburg were in the ascendancy and continued to attack. Walcott then had another opportunity to score when he evaded the offside trap but he took to long to shoot and was closed down by the German sides defence. Impressive Arsenal starlet, 17 year old Jeff Reine-Adelaide, was impressing in his first start of the tournament and tormented the Wolfsburg defence with his pace and trickery. Walcott put the ball into the back of the net but was correctly ruled offside. Timm Klose came close to scoring the games first goal but his effort went over the bar. Just before the break, great link up play by Arsenal, presented Ozil with a chance to score but his right footed shot went narrowly wide. After a good first half of football, the teams went into the break goalless.

In the 2nd half, Arsenal immediately took the game to Wolfsburg and took an early lead in the 50th minute. Theo Walcott scored the games first goal after being beautifully set-up by Reine-Adelaide. Wolfsburg could’ve easily pulled a goal back a few minutes later but bad decision making let them down at the crucial moments. Rene- Adelaide then broke free in his own half and played a through ball to Walcott but the Wolfsburg keeper was alert to the danger. The game was an open affair with both sides trading blows and either side looked like scoring at any given moment. In the 62nd minute a powerful long-range shot from Wolfsburg’s Josuha Guilavogui, stung the palms of Petr Cech. Arsenal substitutes Aaron Ramsey and Alex Oxlade- Chamberlain combined to unlock the German sides defence but Ramsey’s effort went wide. Chuba Akpom nearly doubled the Gunners lead as his shot forced a saved out of Benaglio. Isaac Hayden then also had a crack from outside the area but his shot was diverted out by Benaglio. That was the games last meaningful attempt on goal as Arsenal won the game 1-0 and were crowned champions of the Emirates Cup by virtue of their superior goal difference.


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