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The French striker scored a brace to further increase his confidence as the Gunners' hopes of winning the Europa League were boosted When you arrive at a club for big money the expectations are equally as weighty and no-one knows that better than Alexandre Lacazette. The France international joined Arsenal from Lyon last summer for a then club record fee of £46.5million, but hasn’t produced as many goalscoring moments as Arsene Wenger would have liked over the past few months – but his past two games have showed that he is more than capable of leading the Gunners to Europa League glory, following an impressive brace and performance against CSKA Moscow. Lacazette went nine games without scoring in January before undergoing knee surgery weeks later which kept him on the sidelines for over a month. Despite a goal on his debut against Leicester at the start of the season, the 26-year-old hasn’t replicated the kind of form he was known for with Lyon where he earned the nicknam...

Two own-goals, from Daniele De Rossi and Kostas Manolas, and a close-range finish from Gerard Pique, presented the Catalans with a flattering 3-0 advantage at the Camp Nou before Edin Dzeko snatched Roma a late away goal.  But, just as the Italians looked to have grabbed a lifeline, Luis Suarez restored the three-goal cushion, by scoring a fourth in the 87th minute.  It means Barca will head to Italy next week with a place in the last four firmly in their grasp but this was not a virtuoso attacking display.  Instead, they benefited from two fortuitous own goals and some careless Roma finishing. They are unlikely to meet as generous an opponent in the semis.  “We did not that have continuity in the game,” Valverde said. “We had some errors and there were times that we rushed into the attack, instead of having some control.”  Barca also had referee Danny Makkelie to thank for not awarding Roma an early penalty, after Nelson Semedo pushed Dzeko in the...