Arsene Wenger has praised the performances of Arsenal’s young players during the Gunners’ 1-0 loss to 1.FC Koln in the Europa League on Thursday night.
Arsenal have been fielding their second-string team in the Europa League in the present campaign and Wenger opted to do the same thing against the German outfit; in addition to several fringe players, youngsters have also been given a chance to play in the European competition .
While Ainsley Maitland-Niles started for Arsenal at the RheinEnergieStadion, Reiss Nelson came off the bench in the second half.
And Wenger, whose team lost the game courtesy of Sehrou Guirassy’s penalty in the 62nd minute, believes his young charges gave a good account of themselves against Koln.
“I felt that Ainsley Maitland-Niles was very good, in the first half especially”, Wenger was quoted as saying by the club’s official site.
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“When we had problems to create dangerous situations, he did very well.
“Reiss Nelson came on and looked really tricky, dangerous going forward every time.
“The really young players did well on that front.
“Guys like Rob Holding were good too, but the young players did very well.”
Despite the loss, Arsenal will progress to the knockout round of the Europa League as group winners.
Arsenal will wrap up their Europa League group stage campaign with a home game against BATE Borisov on 7th December.
