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Arsenal handed huge boost ahead of crucial Europa League clash with Rennes

By on March 12, 2019

alexandre lacazette

Arsenal have been handed a huge boost with the news that Alex Lacazette is now eligible to face Rennes in the second leg of our Europa League clash on Thursday night.

Lacazette was initially handed a three-match suspension after being found guilty of violent conduct following his sending off for a petulant throw of an elbow during the closing stages of our last-32 first leg defeat to BATE Borisov.

Unai Emery had to make-do without the Frenchman for the subsequent 3-0 victory over the Belarusian champions at the Emirates while Lacazette also sat out our last-16 first leg defeat to Rennes in France last week.

However, Arsenal have now been handed a major boost as UEFA have upheld our appeal to have Lacazette’s suspension reduced to just two matches.

As the 27-year-old has already served two games of his ban, Lacazette will now be available for our crucial second leg against Rennes on Thursday night where we’ll look to turn around a 3-1 deficit.

A statement from UEFA was published on Arsenal.com:

“The appeal lodged by Arsenal FC has been partially upheld. To suspend the Arsenal FC player Alexandre Lacazette for two (2) Uefa competition matches for which he would be otherwise eligible for serious rough play.

“Note: Lacazette has already served the two-match suspension following Arsenal FC’s Uefa Europa League matches – round of 32 second-leg match against BATE Borisov on February 21, and round of 16 first-leg match against Rennes on March 7.”

This is a major boost as we know we need to score at least two goals against Rennes in order to qualify for the quarter finals and Lacazette has been in excellent form recently.

He was arguably Man of the Match against Man Utd at the weekend so I hope Unai Emery keeps him in the starting eleven on Thursday. In fact, I’d be tempted to play the same eleven that started against United.

Those betting in Canada can find out all the latest news ahead of the match on Thursday and do your research before placing any bets on the Arsenal game. Obviously we’re favourites to win on the night but it’s going to be tough to qualify for the next round so we could get some tempting odds on Arsenal reaching the quarter-finals.