Many Arsenal fans were keen to express their delight as academy product Folarin Balogun made history with his first senior goal for the Gunners on Thursday night.
Arsenal sealed qualification for the Europa League knockout rounds with a 3-0 win over Norwegian side Molde, with the 19-year-old rounding off the scoring. The forward came of the bench and was set up superbly by fellow academy youngster Emile Smith Rowe as he finished in a composed manner in his first involvement of the game.
Arsenal have excelled under Mikel Arteta in European competition this season, having won all of their group games thus far.
Despite early warning signs in a goalless first half in Norway, it was the actions of youth which caught the headlines in the European competition. Other notable performances from youth players saw Joe Willock set up two goals whilst fellow academy graduate Reiss Nelson also found the net.
Although supporters were unable to witness Balogun’s moment of impact in Norway, he was hailed by many fans back home as they took to Twitter to express their joy at the youngster’s historic night.
One fan called him a “serious young talent”, while another demanded Twitter to add a blue verification tick to his account – a feature it currently lacks:
‘Balogun d’Or’?
— Morgan TH (@TylerHuggett4) November 26, 2020
Twitter: Bakayo Saka
Joe Willock
Emile Smith-Rowe
Reiss Nelson
Folarin Balogun
Eddie NketiehSome serious young talent. (@AdamHorn5)
Twitter: @DailyAFC @SamJDean Better striker than Werner
should be playing (@JayAsh94_)
Twitter: @fbalogun67 Twitter should verify this lad. (@realRitchie254)
Twitter: @fbalogun67 Keep striving
(@kieranjr9)
Twitter: Was just looking at Arsenal scoring statistics this season and @fbalogun67 has 3.75 goals per 90 minutes played des… https://t.co/xob0OLk48s (@AFC_Dec14)
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