Arsenal Sweep Group Phase Clean, Molde One To The Round Of 32

Arsenal young striker Folarin Balogun celebrates after scoring his team's fourth goal against Dundalk (Photo: Antara)

JAKARTA - Arsenal wiped out all of the Europa League group stage matches after winning in the final series of matches when Molde made sure to follow the Gunners into the last 32.

At Aviva Stadium, Dublin, Republic of Ireland, Arsenal won a convincing 4-2 victory over Dundalk to complete Group B's clean sweep on Thursday (Friday WIB).

Edward Nketiah opened Arsenal's lead in the 12th minute with an Andrew Boyle blunder, which was doubled six minutes later by Mohamed Elneny's powerful shot.

Dundalk had a chance to close the gap in the 22nd minute with a Jordan Flores strike, but Arsenal held a 2-1 lead until halftime.

Arsenal restored a two-goal lead when Joe Willock beat the Dundalk defender after receiving a Folarin Balogun cross before firing a low shot that was beyond goalkeeper Gary Rogers in the 67th minute.

Balogun added to Arsenal's lead in the 80th minute by completing a Nicolas Pepe pass which Dundalk responded to five minutes later through Sean Hoare's flick of a Flores free kick, but the visitors still had the full three points when the game ended 4-2.

This makes Arsenal the only team to have collected the full 18 points from the Europa League group stage, Antara notes on the official UEFA website.

In another match that took place at the same time, Molde completed a task that only needed a draw on a visit to Rapid Wien's headquarters at the Allianz Stadium, Vienna, Austria, to qualify for the last 32 of the Europa League.

Magnus Eikrem gave Molde the lead in the 12th minute and Rapid eliminated the lead two minutes from halftime when Marcel Ritzmaier's long-range shot lodged into the top left corner of the visitors' goal.

Molde started the second half brilliantly again when Eikrem scored his second from Fredrik Aursnes 'pass to restore the visitors' lead.

Since then Molde has tried to kill the match early, but their efforts have not succeeded and Rapid instead equalized right at the end of normal time with Melih Ibrahimoglu's right-footed strike.

The hosts tried hard to turn things around, but the score at 2-2 did not change until the dispersal ensured Molde locked in second place in Group B with a collection of 10 points, three points ahead of Rapid.

Thus Molde has the right to accompany Arsenal to the last 32, which the draw will be made on Monday next week.