Arsenal look for three points as they host Red Star Belgrade
Kick-off : 8:05 PM (Local)
Venue : Emirates Stadium, London
Arsenal will qualify for the Europa League knockout stages with a victory over Red Star Belgrade on Thursday.
Arsenal are currently top of their group with 100 % win record. So they can afford to draw if BATE Borisov fail to beat Cologne.
The Gunners earlier defeated Red Star Belgrade 1-0 when they visited Serbia. Olivier Giroud’s bicycle kick sealed the deal then.
Arsene Wenger will be hoping of a similar showing from the team as they head into match day four.
These two teams have so far played each other thrice so far. Out of that Arsenal have won once while Red Star Belgrade have won once and one game have ended in a draw.
Team news and possible line-ups
The Serbian side will be without the services of Milan Rodic as he is suspended. So we can expect Srdjan Babic to come into his place.
As for Arsenal, David Ospina will not be available for Thursday’s game as is still recovering from groin injury. So Petr Cech should continue keeping for the Gunners.
Calum Chambers is a doubt for Thursday’s match. Other than that Arsene Wenger will stick with the youth team used throughout the Europa League campaign so far.
Red Star Belgrade XI : Borjan, Stojkovic, Savic, Le Tallec, Babic, Srnic, Kanga, Donald, Krsticic, Radonjic, Boakye.
Arsenal XI : Cech, Debuchy, Elneny, Holding, Nelson, Coquelin, Willock, Maitland-Niles, Walcott, Wilshere, Giroud.
Prediction
I don’t think Arsenal will have much troubles seeing off Red Star Belgrade on Thursday night. I expect Arsenal to win this game comfortably. The scoreline could be 2-0.
