Key events
FULL TIME: Lens 2-1 Sevilla. Yep, that’s that in the Stade Bollaert-Delelis in Lens. The home side go through to the qualifying knockouts for the Europa League, while the seven-time winners of that competition crash out of Europe altogether.
Here’s how Group B finished.
GOAL! Lens 2-1 Sevilla (Fulgini 90+6). Angelo Fulgini’s late, late, late, late, late, late goal has almost certainly prised Sevilla’s fingers off the Europa League trophy.
FULL TIME: PSV Eindhoven 1-1 Arsenal
Arsenal win Group B. PSV qualify for the knockouts as well. We knew it already, but there it is.
90 min +7: … so having said that, Arsenal should have scored the winner! Trossard takes receipt of a throw from the right, turns into space into the box, and with only Benitez to beat, bashes his shot straight at the keeper. Kiwior slices the rebound high and wide.
90 min +6: Mauro Júnior strides down the inside-left channel and rasps a rising shot straight at Ramsdale, who handles well. That’s probably going to be that.
90 min +5: Pepi chases after a long pass down the right only to be held up by Gabriel.
90 min +3: The game slows. It’s been a long evening. There’s a sense that both teams would take the draw now. Or does one team have one last sudden attacking thrust left in them?
90 min +1: The first of six added minutes. Oppegård comes on for the PSV goalscorer Vertessen.
90 min: Gabriel misjudges a long pass down the PSV right. Til is able to tear off down the channel. He reaches the box. He’s got Pepi in the middle, but fizzes something that’s neither a shot nor cross through the six-yard box and out for a goal kick instead.
88 min: Kiwior turns in from the left wing and feeds Trossard, who flashes a wild shot over the bar. Before the game can be restarted, Smith Rowe comes on for his first game since October. He replaces Havertz, while Jesus is swapped in for Nelson. No outing for academy prospects Ethan Nwaneri, Reuell Walters and Lino Sousa tonight, then.
86 min: More on that Sergio Ramos equaliser for Sevilla, courtesy of Joe Pearson: “At the second time of asking, Ramos puts away a penalty, then puts his studs through the keeper’s hand. Yellow. I’d call it orange, at least.”
84 min: It’s end to end again. Kiwior goes looking for goal again, but after dribbling in from the left, his low shot is easily blocked. PSV counter through Dest down the right, but he can’t find anyone with his cutback.
83 min: Tillman is replaced by Til. Or, put another way: Tillman.
82 min: No goal. Gabriel, standing right next to Kiwior when he headed home, was interfering with play. Benitez gets away with a huge flap there. What delivery from Odegaard, though.
81 min: A free kick for Arsenal out on the left. Odegaard takes. Benitez comes out to claim, but fails to get there. Kiwior has the simple task of heading home from ten yards … but the flag goes up for offside. The nearby Gabriel was clearly off. VAR will have a look, though.
GOAL! Lens 1-1 Sevilla 1 (Ramos 79 pen). Sergio Ramos will be happier now. He’s just slotted a re-taken penalty to level up for Sevilla, who now just need one more goal to pip Lens to a spot in the Europa League.
78 min: Arsenal are struggling to hold onto the ball now. Nketiah ships it cheaply in the centre circle, forcing his defenders to deal with a couple of minutes of pressure. Arsenal hold their shape, but it’s the hosts who look the more likely at the moment.
76 min: Benitez launches a long goal kick. Last man Rice hesitates on the ball and nearly allows Pepi to take it off him, but steers it back to Ramsdale and safety calmly enough in the end. Always in control.
74 min: PSV make a double change. Dest and Babadi replace Saibari and Bakayoko, the latter, having run at Arsenal all night, clearly out of juice.
72 min: Bakayoko floats the free kick to the back stick, but Vertessen can’t get his head on the ball. Arsenal clear.
71 min: Van Aanholt is very close to releasing Tillman down the middle. Arsenal are fortunate that Tillman miscontrols and Kiwior is able to clear. Then PSV come again, with the ever-lively Bakayoko dribbling in from the right only to be checked by Jorginho just outside the box. Danger here for Arsenal.
70 min: … so having said that, the pace drops.
68 min: Both sides look in the mood now as they search for a winner. A nice, open feel to a game that means the square root of bugger all.
66 min: Saibari tussles with Rice on the edge of the Arsenal box. He spins his man easily then shoots. The ball deflects off Rice, then off the base of the left-hand post. Arsenal clear, and breathe again.
65 min: Nketiah is fine to continue. Then there’s more panto fun as Nelson skitters in from the right and ripples the side netting. Arsenal’s supporters incorrectly cheer again; they’re jeered by the delighted PSV fans when the truth reveals itself.
GOAL! Lens 1-0 Sevilla (Frankowski 63 pen). Przemyslaw Frankowski has given Lens the lead from the spot, and the French side are within touching distance of the Europa League now. Sergio Ramos will have the face on now all right.
64 min: Arsenal are in the wars all of a sudden. Havertz clatters into his own man Nketiah, and the latter is down requiring treatment.
62 min: Elneny can’t continue. His number goes up, and Ødegaard comes on in his place. Saliba and Cedric are also replaced, by White and Rice.
61 min: Elneny is down. Cramp? A hamstring issue? Either way, it doesn’t look as though he’s going to be able to continue.
59 min: Havertz crosses from the right. Nketiah rises highest at the far stick and ripples the side netting with a wayward header. The Arsenal fans, up the other end, their view obscured, momentarily cheer for a goal. The rest of the stadium soon responds in mockery. Well, it is pantomime season, after all.
58 min: Mauro Júnior crosses aimlessly from the left. Trossard, under no pressure at all, heads it behind needlessly. Arsenal nearly pay from the corner, Van Aanholt’s low drive nearly bagatelling its way through a crowded box. But the deflections are kind to the visitors, who clear their lines.
56 min: Arsenal string some passes together in the sterile style.
54 min: Nelson embarks on a full-blooded diagonal dribble in from the right flank. It looks as though he’s got time and space to shoot from the edge of the D, but he opts to keep on going instead, hoping to release Trossard down the left channel with a killer pass. The move fizzles out. For a second, though, that looked extremely promising.
52 min: That was a gorgeous finish. Ramsdale had no chance. “It’s a good thing someone likes Arsenal’s third strip because adidas are putting an awful lot of eggs in that basket,” writes Harriet Osborn. Those trainers would pair nicely with Spurs gear.
GOAL! PSV 1-1 Arsenal (Vertessen 50)
Scrub that quiet restart! The PSV Stadion erupts in noise as Pepi takes up Tillman’s pass down the inside-left channel and feeds Vertessen on the overlap. Vertessen opens his body and curls an unstoppable shot across Ramsdale, off the right-hand upright, and in!
49 min: Otherwise, it’s been a quiet start to the second half. A lack of jeopardy will do this kind of thing.
47 min: Tillman barrels down the left and nearly loses control, only for Van Aanholt to take the ball off his toe and continue the attack. It’s worked to Bakayoko, on the other flank. He tees up Vertessen, who drags a low drive wide left from the edge of the D.
PSV get the second half underway. No changes.
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Elsewhere in Group B … HALF TIME: Lens 0-0 Sevilla. Sevilla need to win tonight if they’re to snatch third place from Lens and give themselves a chance of defending the Europa League trophy they won for the seventh time last season. Kári Tulinius is all over that one: “I’ve been watching the meaningful match in this group at the glorious Stade Bollaert-Delelis and Sergio Ramos has a funk on, for no discernible reason. You’d think someone as fabulously rich and wildly successful would be more easy going but he seems to have the sort of unhinged competitiveness that leads people to treat a game of badminton on the beach like a life and death struggle.”
Here’s how the group stands at the moment.
HALF TIME: PSV Eindhoven 0-1 Arsenal
… and so Arsenal’s second string are on course to make it 15 points from the 18 available in Group B.
45 min +2: Bakayoko dribbles hard, in from the right. He’s afforded way too much space and time, and fires a shot towards the bottom right. Ramsdale extends fully to tip around the post and nothing comes of the resulting corner.
45 min +1: The first of three additional first-half minutes, and there’s a quick VAR check for a potential penalty. Did an Arsenal hand stop the in-flight Vertessen? No, is the answer that comes back pleasingly quickly.
45 min: Vertessen dribbles in from the left but can’t work enough space in the Arsenal box for a shot.
43 min: Bakayoko has been PSV’s best threat, and he whizzes down the right, crossing for Pepi, who heads high and wide from ten yards. Nearly a perfect response to going behind from PSV.
GOAL! PSV 0-1 Arsenal (Nketiah 42)
Eddie Nketiah scores his first Champions League goal! And it’s very nicely taken. Nelson and Cedric combine crisply down the right. The former steps infield and finds Nketiah on the edge of the D. He takes a touch to make himself some room before lasering a shot towards the bottom right, past Benitez, off the base of the post, and in. One-nil to the Arsenal!
40 min: Havertz busies himself down the left and cuts back infield for Trossard, but the winger is swarmed quickly and PSV clear their lines.
38 min: The home fans continue to give it plenty, regardless.