MADRID, May 8 (Xinhua) -- Valencia will make it an unhappy homecoming for Arsenal coach Unai Emery and book a place in the final of the Europa League on Thursday night.
Emery was Valencia coach for four seasons, leading them to three third place finishes behind FC Barcelona and Real Madrid, before abandoning the Mestalla Stadium for a career which has seen him coach Spartak Moscow, Sevilla, Paris Saint Germain and now Arsenal.
The English side travels to Spain with a 3-1 first leg lead, but a 2-0 win in Mestalla would be enough to see Valencia through.
The Spanish side has been in decent form in the Liga Santander as they made clear last weekend with a 6-2 win in Huesca to keep them in the race for fourth place.
Arsenal were held to a 1-1 draw at home to lowly Brighton and Emery must be worried by a defense which has leaked 10 goals in their last four league games.
Valencia's strike force of Rodrigo Moreno, Santi Mina and Kevin Gameiro have the pace to cause Arsenal all sorts of trouble, while Mestalla will be a pressure cooker atmosphere.
Arsenal showed in the first leg that they too have power in attack with Alexandre Lacazette and Pierre-Emerick Aubemeyang scoring their goals.
"We have always been able to play against great strikers; we played against Juventus and Manchester United away from home in this season's Champions League and we only conceded a goal against Juventus," commented Valencia's former Arsenal midfielder Francis Coquelin.
"Lacazette is a top striker and he can score at any moment, but on Thursday we are going to try and stop him," he added.
"We are here to try and fight back. The away goal will help us and we have the quality to overturn the deficit," insisted the midfielder.
Gameiro said Valencia have to "go out fast and try to score an early goal, but if we don't do that, we have to remember we have 90 minutes to win the game."
