Aubameyang Left Deflated By Arsenal's Europa League Ouster

Arsenal forward Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang was left devastated after his missed opportunity at the death of the Gunners' lost to Olympiakos in the Europa League round-of-32 on Thursday decreased by a high margin their chances of qualifying for the Champions League next season.

The Gabon striker inexplicably pulled his shot off-target from close range as the ball deflected off an Olympiacos player to land right in front of him, with the Emirates Stadium outfit losing 2-1 to be eliminated on away goals.

What was even more heartbreaking for Aubameyang was that he had scored a spectacular aerobatic goal minutes before that seemingly saw the English side through into the last 16 with the Arsenal captain slumping to the ground after his miss.

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"Very, very disappointing. What can I say? It is very, very hard. It was a tough game again," the club captain told BT Sport after the match.

"I don't even know [how I missed that chance late on]. I feel very, very bad. It can happen but I do not know how I missed this chance. I was tired, I had some cramps but it is not an excuse."

Arsenal had beaten Olympiakos 1-0 in the first leg and appeared to have done enough to squeeze through when Aubameyang struck in the 113th minute to cancel out Pape Cisse's 53rd-minute header.

But the visitors refused to give up easily as Youssef El Arabi struck with just a minute left of extra time to delight the boisterous away fans, and Aubameyang then missing a gilt-edged chance to force another twist with the last kick of the game.

As Olympiakos celebrated their huge win, Aubameyang was visibly emotional and even the encouraging words from Bellerin could do nothing to uplift his mood.

Mikel Arteta also shared the disappointment of his captain after the match but noted the loss couldn't be blamed on Aubameyang's late miss.

"It hurts, big time. We had a lot of hope in this competition. It was a great way for us to be able to go to Europe and it is a very beautiful competition to try to win," Arteta said. "I think we did a lot of positive things in the game.

"I think we created enough chances to win the game, but if you concede two set-pieces again in a tie like this, then you put yourself in big trouble.

"This is football and sometimes it is very cruel when the emotions are [high], then in another moment, they're [low]. You have to able to handle that if you want to be in this industry so now it's up to us and up to me to bring this place back in and move forward."