Ramsey sparkles as Arsenal beat Napoli

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An Aaron Ramsey effort and a Kalidou Koulibaly own goal gave Arsenal a 2-0 victory over Napoli in the first leg of their Europa League quarter-final on Thursday – and a rare and valuable clean sheet to take to Italy in a week's time.

Arsenal took the lead in the 14th minute through Ramsey, who finished off a sweeping move down the right by calmly slotting the ball past Napoli keeper Alex Meret.

They doubled the advantage 10 minutes later after a moment of individual brilliance from Lucas Torreira, who dashed through the Napoli midfield before spinning and switching the ball to his left foot, finding the net with a heavily-deflected shot off Koulibaly.

The Gunners pressed forward repeatedly as the half wore on, but were unable to capitalize despite repeated shots on goal from strikers Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang, while Napoli had Meret to thank for numerous saves.

Carlo Ancelotti's men poured forward at the start of the second half in search of an away goal, with striker Lorenzo Insigne putting the ball in the back of the net only to be ruled offside, and Koulibaly denied moments later when keeper Petr Cech tipped his header over the bar.

The game quickly opened up and Ramsey, who joins Napoli's rivals and Serie A leaders Juventus in the close season, and Nacho Monreal created chances at the other end but were unable to outwit Meret again.

Napoli went closest to scoring when Insigne raced down the right and crossed to Piotr Zielinski, but the Pole's right-footed effort shot up over the bar.

The Italian side have now failed to beat English opponents away from the San Paolo stadium in nine attempts in European competition, and will need to be on scoring form at home if they are to progress in the competition.

Hat-trick from Benfica's Teenager

Benfica's 19-year-old forward Joao Felix became the youngest player to score a Europa League hat-trick as he led them to a 4-2 win over 10-man Eintracht Frankfurt in their quarter-final first leg on Thursday.

The Bundesliga side, who played with 10 men for almost an hour, were in danger of being blown away when Benfica went 4-1 up just after halftime but a second goal by substitute Goncalo Paciencia left the tie more finely balanced for the return.

Benfica coach Bruno Lage warned against getting carried away with the performance of Felix, who only made his first-team debut this season.

"If he hadn't scored tonight, everyone would have said he is off-form, but because he scored three, they say he is flying," said Lage.

"Let's take it easy, let him develop and enjoy himself. He has to go out and enjoy himself and that is what he has done. One day he will score three goals, the other he won't score any. He has to develop naturally."

Eintracht forward Luka Jovic, on loan from Benfica, missed two early chances as the Bundesliga side made a bright start before the game took a dramatic twist.

Felix threaded a ball through the Eintracht defense to send Gedson Fernandes clear and he was pushed over from behind by Evan N'Dicka.

The referee judged that Fernandes had been denied a clear scoring chance, N'Dicka was sent off and Felix calmly converted the penalty in the 21st minute.

Jovic equalized against his parent club in the 40th minute after Benfica were caught in possession but Felix put the hosts back in front three minutes later with a low strike from 20 meters which caught keeper Kevin Trapp off guard.

Ruben Dias headed a third for Benfica after a corner was knocked on in the 50th minute and Felix sidefooted the fourth four minutes later as the Eagles threatened to run riot.

Eintracht were not finished, however, and substitute Paciencia, raised at Benfica's arch-rivals Porto, put them back in the tie with a looping header from a corner in the 72nd.

"It feels like every shot they had went in despite me getting something on most of them," said Trapp. "It's not a great feeling for a keeper because you're the one that has the responsibility to come to your team's rescue."

"We could have let our heads drop at 4-1, but we persevered and hopefully a 4-2 loss will be enough come the end of the second leg."

Besides, for other two matches on Thursday, Valencia scored twice in stoppage time to secure a 3-1 victory away to local rivals Villarreal and take the upper hand, and a late header by defender Marcos Alonso and Kepa Arrizabalaga's goalkeeping heroics helped Chelsea beat a stubborn Slavia Prague 1-0.

(With inputs from agencies)