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Azeez ‘overjoyed’ after making Arsenal debut in Dundalk win
The Nigerian descent replaced Joe Willock at the Aviva Stadium on Thursday to mark his maiden professional outing for the Gunners
Miguel Azeez is over the moon after making his debut appearance for Arsenal in their 4-2 Uefa Europa League victory over Dundalk.
The 18-year-old, who was born to a Nigerian father and a Spanish mother in England, played the final seven minutes of Thursday’s encounter after coming on for Joe Willock.
He is pleased to have contributed to their victory as goals from Eddie Nketiah, Mohamed Elneny, Willock and Folarin Balogun secured maximum points for the visitors.
Azeez joined Arsenal youth academy at the age of five and he was rewarded with his first professional contract at the club in September 2019.
After the memorable outing in Dublin, the teenage midfielder vowed to continue working hard to earn his place in Mikel Arteta’s squad.
“I'm buzzing. I'm happy and overjoyed with the experience. I'm so grateful that I was able to get the experience and all the hard work has paid off today,” Azeez told the club website.
“I just wanted to play my game because that's why I'm here. I didn't want to do anything that I'm not used to doing. I just wanted to see the game out and make sure we won and put in a good performance.
“I will play with passion because I love the club. I've been here since the age of five so I'm an Arsenal fan through and through and obviously, I just want to give something back to the fans and play my best games every single day.
“Hopefully, whenever the manager wants to put me in I'm just going to take my opportunities. I'll keep training hard, keep making sure that I'm in the managers head and play my game whenever I get the opportunity.”
Apart from Azeez, Ben Cottrell was another youngster who made his first-team debut for the Gunners on Thursday.
Cottrell and Azeez are the 876th and 877th players to play for the first-team of the North London outfit.
Meanwhile, Arsenal secured their qualification for the last 32 stage of the tournament with an unblemished record of six wins in six games which put them at the top of Group B.
