{"id":84669,"date":"2026-03-17T22:03:00","date_gmt":"2026-03-17T22:03:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/eze-stunner-helps-arsenal-past-leverkusen-into-last-eight\/"},"modified":"2026-03-17T22:03:00","modified_gmt":"2026-03-17T22:03:00","slug":"eze-stunner-helps-arsenal-past-leverkusen-into-last-eight","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gulftimes.ae\/?p=84669","title":{"rendered":"Eze stunner helps Arsenal past Leverkusen into last eight"},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n    <span class=\"hidden-title\" style=\"display:none\">Eze stunner helps Arsenal past Leverkusen into last eight<\/span><br \/>\n    <span class=\"hidden-url\" style=\"display:none\">\/node\/2636752\/sport<\/span><\/p>\n<article itemscope=\"\" itemtype=\"https:\/\/schema.org\/Article\" class=\"entry-article\">\n<div class=\"grid-x entry-article-inner align-center\" data-nid=\"2636752\">\n<div class=\"cell large-shrink\">\n<div class=\"entry-aside-info stick-aside-info show-for-large\">\n<p>\n                      Updated 18 March 2026                    <\/p>\n<p>\n                        <time>March 18, 2026<span> 01:47<\/span><\/time>                    <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"cell large-auto\">\n<div class=\"printable-area shareable\">\n<p><h2>Eze stunner helps Arsenal past Leverkusen into last eight<\/h2>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"img-area show-for-printable-area\">\n                                            <\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-highlight\">\n<ul>\n<li>The spring days are warming up in north London and the whiff of silverware is in the air as relentless Arsenal\u2019s outstanding season comes to the boil<\/li>\n<\/ul><\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-meta hide-for-large no-print\">\n<p>\n                          Updated 18 March 2026                        <\/p>\n<p>\n                            Reuters                         <\/p>\n<p>\n                            <time>March 18, 2026<span> 01:47<\/span><\/time>                        <\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"entry-content\" itemprop=\"articleBody\" data-io-article-url=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2636752\/sport\">\n<div class=\"field field-name-body field-type-text-with-summary field-label-hidden\">\n<div class=\"field-items\">\n<div class=\"field-item even\">\n<p>\n\tLONDON: Arsenal\u2019s Eberechi Eze opened his \u200cChampions League account with a stunning goal as his team outclassed Bundesliga side Bayer Leverkusen 2-0 at home to reach the quarter-finals with a 3-1 aggregate victory on Tuesday.<br \/>Leverkusen somehow weathered a \u200bbarrage of Arsenal pressure in the opening half an hour with keeper Janis Blaswich outstanding until Eze\u2019s screamer from outside the area in the 37th minute put them in control of an awkward last-16 tie.<br \/>The tireless Declan Rice made it 2-0 just past the hour mark with a precise low finish and Leverkusen, who ended Arsenal\u2019s 100 percent record in this season\u2019s competition when they had the better of a 1-1 draw in last week\u2019s first leg, never really threatened a comeback.<br \/>Premier League \u200cleaders Arsenal have \u200cbeen criticized for their efficient rather than flamboyant style \u200bthis \u200cseason, \u2060but they \u200bwere \u2060hugely impressive as they swept into the last eight where they will face Portuguese side Sporting.<br \/>The spring days are warming up in north London and the whiff of silverware is in the air as relentless Arsenal\u2019s outstanding season comes to the boil.<br \/>Manager Mikel Arteta\u2019s main preoccupation has been the Premier League title race which they now lead by nine points as they seek a first English crown since 2004.<br \/>But should they win \u2060Sunday\u2019s League Cup final against Manchester City at Wembley, talk of \u200ca potential quadruple will suddenly not seem quite \u200cso outlandish.<br \/>There is still an awfully long way to \u200bgo but there is a laser-focus \u200cabout Arteta\u2019s team that was once again on show against Leverkusen on Tuesday.<br \/>A \u200cweek after being a touch fortunate to emerge from the Rhineland with a draw, Arsenal produced one of their most dominant displays with 21 goal attempts.<br \/>By the time Eze turned and lashed a ferocious dipping shot from 25 meters that whistled past visiting keeper Blaswich, Arsenal had \u200calready racked up 10 efforts on goal.<br \/>Gabriel threatened twice with headers from corners and Blaswich performed wonders to twice deny \u2060Leandro Trossard and \u2060also beat away a free kick by Rice.<br \/>After some recent nervy displays at home, this was Arsenal cutting loose, at least before halftime.<br \/>Kicking toward their vociferous fans in the second half, Leverkusen stepped up a gear and began to make some inroads, without really threatening David Raya\u2019s goal.<br \/>It was Arsenal who had maintained the cutting edge though and they gave themselves breathing space in the 63rd minute when Rice burst onto a poor clearance and drilled a low shot unerringly past Blaswich.<br \/>Arsenal stepped off the gas after that but easily contained Leverkusen whose best effort came late on when Raya made a superb save from Christian Kofane\u2019s side-footed effort.<br \/>As well as \u200bbeing clear leaders in the Premier \u200bLeague and in the League Cup final, Arteta\u2019s team are also in the FA Cup quarter-finals and have now reached the business end of Europe\u2019s elite competition.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<p>                       <!-- \n                        \n\n<div id=\"POSTQUARE_WIDGET_122392\"><\/div>\n\n -->\n                    <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/article>\n<\/div>\n<p><br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.arabnews.com\/node\/2636752\/sport\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Eze stunner helps Arsenal past Leverkusen into last eight \/node\/2636752\/sport Updated 18 March 2026 March 18,&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":84670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"content-type":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[3478,9681,2651,5370,9682],"class_list":["post-84669","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-sport","tag-arsenal","tag-eze","tag-helps","tag-leverkusen","tag-stunner"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO Premium plugin v21.0 (Yoast SEO v28.5) - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-premium-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Eze stunner helps Arsenal past Leverkusen into last eight - Gulf Times | News by the minute<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Gulf Times: Latest news across the GCC from UAE, Bahrain, Qatar, Oman, Yemen, Saudi Arabia\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link 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