Red Star Belgrade vs Arsenal: Why does Europa League match kick off at 6pm?

ARSENAL play away to Red Star Belgrade tonight in the Europa League - but why do they kick off at 6pm?

Arsene WengerPA

Arsene Wenger's Arsenal are hoping to extend their 100% record in the Europa League

Arsenal are in the Serbian city of Belgrade to face Red Star in their third Europa League match of the campaign.

The Gunners sit top of Group H after wins against Cologne and BATE Boris in their opening two fixtures.

But Arsenal fans may be left confused by the timing of their match tonight.

Why do Arsenal kick off at 6pm?

Arsenal kick of at 6pm in Belgrade tonight with UEFA splitting Europa League kick off times.

Games either start at 19.00 CET or 21.05 CET - with games split evenly between each slot.

Arsenal’s last match - against BATE Borisov - also fell into the early slot while the opener with Cologne was later before then being further delayed by crowd trouble at the Emirates.

UEFA have also made accommodations for certain cities that get extreme weather with all kicks offs in Kazakhstan scheduled for 17:00 CET and all Lokomotiv Moscow matches starting at 19:00 CET.

CET (Central European Time) is one hour ahead of GMT in the UK.

Arsenal team news

Arsenal remain without Santi Cazorla, Danny Welbeck, Calum Chambers and Shkodran Mustafa.

Mesut OzilPA

Mesut Ozil could come back into the Arsenal side to face Red Star Belgrade

What does Wenger think?

Arsene Wenger is hopeful of progress after a positive start to the European campaign.

“For us it’s a target,” he said. 

“We are in the Europa League for the first time in 20 years so we discover a little bit the level. For us it’s a potential trophy to win and we want to do well in all competitions.

"In six days we play the Europa League, Premier League and League Cup, and we want to fight in every single competition. It’s one of the routes [back into next year’s Champions League], but it’s not the only one for us.”

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