Arsenal secured a top-two finish in this season’s UEFA Champions League after beating Inter Milan at the San Ṣírò on Tuesday night.
This extend their perfect record to seven wins from seven in the competition.
The visitors made what they described as a “stunning start” to the contest and went ahead after 10 minutes when Gabriel Jesus scored “with a poacher’s effort.”
Inter responded eight minutes later as Petar Sucic “blasted into the top corner” to level the score.
Arsenal regained the lead before the break, with Jesus completing his brace following a corner.
Bukayo Saka delivered the set piece, Leandro Trossard headed it back across goal, and after the ball “actually flicked off the crossbar,” Jesus was on hand “to nod it into the net and complete his brace,” marking “the 19th time we have scored from a corner this season.”
The match remained open and intense, with both sides creating chances.
Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya was forced into action late in the first half, producing “a double save just before half-time when Dimarco shot goalwards twice in quick succession,” using “a combination of our keeper’s hands and feet” to preserve the lead.
Arsenal continued to press after the interval and created several opportunities, while Inter also threatened, with substitute Pio Esposito seeing one effort “flash past Raya’s far upright” and another from a corner “driven over the bar.”
The decisive moment came late in the game as Arsenal sealed what the report described as “a famous win in style.”
With four minutes remaining, Viktor Gyokeres struck from distance after a swift counter-attack.
Following an Inter corner, Gabriel Martinelli “played a brilliant long ball into the opposition half,” and after Gyokeres “held off a defender,” the move culminated with the Swede “sweeping it into the top corner from 25 yards.”
The goal completed a victory that set Arsenal’s “longest-ever winning streak in Europe’s premier club competition” and guaranteed they would “finish no lower than second in the table,” securing a place in the last 16 and “home advantage in the second leg in the knockout phase.”
The win was also their first Champions League victory in Italy since March 2008. Arsenal now head into the final league-phase fixture against Kairat Almaty “on the brink of becoming the first team in Champions League history to win all eight of their league phase games.”
Up next, Arsenal return to domestic action with a home match against Manchester United on Sunday before closing their Champions League league phase at the Emirates Stadium next week.
