LONDON: Arsenal and Chelsea put patchy domestic form behind them to reach the Europa League last 16 and they were joined by fellow big guns from Italy on a night of rip-roaring action in the continent’s second-tier competition on Thursday.

Arsenal beat BATE Borisov 3-0 after a 1-0 first-leg defeat by the Belarus champions while Chelsea took some of the pressure off coach Maurizio Sarri with a 3-0 home defeat of mediocre Malmo which gave them a 5-1 aggregate win over the Swedish side.

Napoli, winners of the UEFA Cup in 1989, had no problems beating FC Zurich 2-0 at home to advance 5-1 on aggregate and Inter Milan, the winners of three European Cup and UEFA Cup titles apiece, strolled through with a 4-0 home win over Rapid Vienna which completed a 5-0 dismissal.

Last year’s semi-finalists RB Salzburg were the other big winners as their 4-0 home rout of Club Bruges gave the Austrian side a 5-2 aggregate win while two goals from Iran forward Sardar Azmoun handed Zenit St Petersburg a 3-2 overall success against Fenerbahce.

Eintracht Frankfurt also had no problems to make the next phase as they beat Shakhtar Donetsk 4-1 to earn a 6-3 overall victory while Valencia, Villarreal, Dinamo Zagreb, Benfica, Dynamo Kiev, Rennes, Krasnodar and Slavia Prague all made it through.

Former champions Sevilla advanced after knocking out Lazio on Wednesday.

Arsenal manager Unai Emery made three changes to the starting lineup he used last week in Belarus, bringing on playmaker Mesut Ozil and defender Stephan Lichtsteiner while Pierre-Emerick Aubam­eyang replaced suspended French forward Alexandre Lacazette .

Those changes paid off.

Aubameyang needed just four minutes to create the opener. He broke down the right before his cross hit defender Zakhar Volkov, who diverted the ball past goalkeeper Denis Scherbitski.

Lichtsteiner made his presence felt when he saved on the goal line minutes later.

Shkodran Mustafi made it 2-0 with a thumping header from a Granit Xhaka corner and the Switzerland midfielder delivered another impressive set-piece for Sokratis Papastathopoulos to head home on the hour.

“We wanted this result but also we wanted to play for our supporters here. We did our best to come back (in the tie) and the team worked very well,” Emery told BT Sport.

Rattled by embarrassing domestic defeats, Chelsea looked jittery before Olivier Giroud settled their nerves with a close range tap-in shortly after halftime at Stamford Bridge following good work by N’Golo Kante and Willian in the build-up.

Malmo had central defender Magnus Bengtsson sent off in the 73rd minute for a second bookable offence, moments before Ross Barkley curled in a delightful freekick from 20 metres.

Callum Hudson-Odoi put the icing on the cake in the closing stages with a fierce low shot from inside the penalty area, boosting Chelsea’s confidence ahead of Sunday’s clash with Manchester City in the League Cup final at Wembley.

The result provides some relief for Sarri, the Italian coach who was subjected to abuse from Chelsea supporters after the side’s FA Cup loss to Manchester United at home on Monday.

“We played the first 30 minutes without confidence, nervous,” Sarri said. “After the first goal, we played very well we started to move the ball very fast, with confidence.”

Napoli coach Carlo Ancelotti made it two wins from his first two games in the Europa League as forwards Simone Verdi and Adam Ounas scored in each half at the Stadio San Paolo and Inter followed in their footsteps at the San Siro as Matias Vecino, Andrea Ranocchia, Ivan Perisic and Matteo Politano made light work of their return leg against Rapid.

Following a 2-2 draw in Ukraine, Eintracht thumped Shakhtar 4-1 in a pulsating encounter with Sebastian Haller and Luka Jovic putting the German side in the driving seat before Junior Moraes pulled one back for the visitors.

Marlos came close to an equaliser when he hit the woodwork before Haller netted his second and substitute Ante Rebic sealed the tie with a crisp low shot from 20 metres.

Salzburg wiped out a 2-1 first-leg deficit thanks to a clinical first-half brace by Zambian forward Patson Daka after Xaver Schlager opened the scoring in the 11th minute. Munas Dabbur made it 4-0 late on.

Goals from Magomed Odzoev and Azmoun gave Zenit a 2-0 lead against Fenerbahce to put them on course for a last-16 berth after a 1-0 first-leg defeat in Istanbul. Their progress looked in peril after Mehmet Topal hauled the Turkish side back into the tie shortly before halftime but Azmoun sealed the win in the 76th minute.

French side Rennes are into the last 16 of a major European tournament for the first time after winning possibly the most entertaining tie of the round 6-4 on aggregate following a barnstorming 3-1 win at Real Betis.

Goals from Ramy Bensebaini and Adrien Hunou fired Rennes into a two-goal lead within the opening half-hour but the tie was put back in the balance when Giovani Lo Celso pulled one back four minutes before half-time.

With Betis pushing to equalise and go through on away goals, M’Baye Niang finished off an injury time break to see the mid-table Ligue 1 side through.

Pablo Fornals scored 10 minutes from time for Villarreal to draw 1-1 in the second leg against Sporting Lisbon, enough to advance after winning 1-0 in the first leg.

Scotland’s participation in Europe ended after 10-man Celtic fell 1-0 at Valencia, already 2-0 up from the first leg in Glasgow and winners in Spain thanks to Kevin Gameiro’s 70th-minute strike.

Croatian champions Dinamo thrashed Viktora Plzen 3-0 for a 4-2 aggregate win over the Czechs while Krasnodar shocked Bundesliga outfit Bayer Leverkusen with a 1-1 draw that saw them through on away goals.

Slavia Prague knocked out Genk after coming from a goal down to win 4-1 in Belgium after a 1-1 draw in the first leg and Dynamo Kiev edged Olympiacos 3-2 on aggregate thanks to a 1-0 home win in the return fixture.

A 0-0 home draw with Galatasaray was enough to see former European Cup winners Benfica through after their 2-1 away win a fortnight ago.

Published in Dawn, February 23rd, 2019