Friday, April 16, 2021 at 2:52 PM• Mart Oude Nijeweeme • Last update: 15:05

Alexandre Lacazette has conquered the hearts of many football fans on Thursday evening. Prior to the Europa League game with Slavia Prague (0-4), the Arsenal striker sent a strong signal to the Czech team during the well-known kneeling moment. Not much later, Lacazette let his feet speak and with two hits he ensured that Arsenal simply joined the last four in the battle for the Europa League.

As usual, since George Floyd’s death, all players on the field have been kneeling before the start of Premier League games as a statement against racial inequality and excessive police brutality. This is sometimes continued in Europe. However, the players of Slavia decided not to agree on Thursday-evening and wrapped their arms around the center circle, while Mikel Arteta’s team on the other side knelt en masse. During the statement, Lacazette also decided to look the Slavia group of players straight in the eye.

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– Football on BT Sport (@btsportfootball) April 15, 2021

The statement was already fraught in advance, as Slavia defender Ondrej Kúdela was suspended by UEFA of no less than ten games earlier this week. Kúdela was racist towards Glen Kamara in the game against Rangers. At the request of the club management of the Scottish champions, UEFA then opened an investigation, with the result that the European season of the Slavia defender ended prematurely. Kúdela has now been suspended for two of the ten matches. He missed the away game against Arsenal (1-1) last week due to a provisional suspension and was also not present at the game on Thursday.

Lacazette’s action caused a lot of reaction on Twitter, where Arsenal fans flocked to the gesture of their captain. “Goosebumps Lacazette,” someone wrote. Another sent: “We have already won with this.” And: “What a picture. Well played captain.” Arsenal initially seemed to face a difficult evening in Prague after the previous 1-1 in London, but scored three times in the space of six minutes and quickly dealt with the Czechs. Lacazette used a penalty kick and took care of the final score in the final phase.

“The captain came to me and asked my permission for this statement and I supported it, as the club does”, Arteta responded to the statement of his players after the game. “I was also grateful to the referee and UEFA for supporting the gesture, it was a good gesture. could do. ” Referee Cüneyt Cakir knelt just like the players of Arsenal and thus responded to the action.