Europa League: Nicolas Pepe Scores Twice To Lead Arsenal To Beat Vitoria Guimeraes

Arsenal recovered from a goal deficit to Vitoria Guimaraes and claimed a 3-2 home victory with Nicola Pepe sealing the victory with a brace.

Gunners have maintained a winning streak of three-game victories to earn the maximum points needed to stay atop of Group F and lead their closest team, Frankfurt, by three points.

The English looked poised for a defeat as the Portuguese side had moved up in the lead by 2-1 in the first half before the former Lille's winger came to their rescue. He delivered two goals that gave the side the victory when he converted two free-kicks late into the game.

The hosts went a goal down when Marcus Edwards smacked a stunning low cut shot into the bottom corner of the goal to give Vitoria an early lead in eight minutes. Just after half an hour, Gabriel Martinelli headed in a cross from Kieran Tierney to equalize for Arsenal.

It did not take long before Vitoria regained the lead with a superb finished from Bruno Duarte after da Luz Pereira's shot clipped post and bounced out to his reach.

Nicolas Pepe scores the second goal for to level 2-2 for Arsenal against Vitoria from a free-kick

With time fast running out late in the second half, Gunners were forced to come all out to get an equalizer and possibly a winning goal afterward. That paid off after Martinelli's shot from close range was saved as Pepe leveled the scores from a free-kick with 10 minutes remaining.

The Frenchman who joined the team in a club-record signing of £72million in summer. later got the winning goal for the side delivering a perfect finish from a free-kick in the injury time.

Pepe finished the game as the first player to score a brace from a free-kick in a Europa game after Luiz Suarez did for Liverpool against Russian side Zenit St. Peterburg in 2013,

Speaking of the winger scoring two goals from free-kicks, the club manager Unai Emery described it as an "important" moment for the player whom he said has " gained confidence" from the game.

"He's getting better, playing minutes, playing matches and scoring goals like tonight," Unai said. "He helped us tonight to win theis match."