Arsenal v Villarreal + AC Milan v Barcelona (Spoilage)

Hehe nice tense match!

Thought Arsenal defended exceptionally well again, particularly given Clichy & Campbell coming having barely played in ages. Gilberto was excellent as was Toure who had a stormer yet again.

Going forward was disappointing, I thought Hleb tried to over-complicate things too often and gave the ball back to Villa too often, although there wasn't a huge amount of support for him - thought Wenger was going to replace him with Pires. Hleb was v. good defensively though, ran his socks off harrying throughout the game.

Thought the ref was a bit lax, especially with the Spanish rugby style defending in the box for corners, and I thought Ljungberg got messed around and blocked an awful lot which the ref seemed to let go as well, good for him not to react, loved it when he clocked the Villareal defender in the face :D

Once it got to about 65-70 mins I thought Arsenal were definitely going to go the distance, Villareal looked absolutely knackered and passes started going astray and Arsenal started to play it around a bit. Then the penalty :eek: Had a feeling Lehmann was going to save it, thought it was funny that from the save all the Villareal players just stood there dumbstruck and didn't even chase the rebound :p

Well done Arsenal! 10 games, 10 clean sheets - on to the final :)
 
Arsenal defended well, but that was the worst Arsenal performance that I've ever seen. They got lucky. They had one shot on goal, and didn't seem at all interested in creating chances. Henry seemed so disinterested in the second half too.
 
tom_nieto said:
Arsenal defended well, but that was the worst Arsenal performance that I've ever seen. They got lucky. They had one shot on goal, and didn't seem at all interested in creating chances. Henry seemed so disinterested in the second half too.
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Henry didnt have any support up front, Fabregas was playing too shallow for my liking and i could see Henry was getting a bit fustrated at the lack of support upfront....Saying that though, after the penalty save he seemed to have a new life...almost scored a goal and created almost another but was off side. Reyes couldnt do much but then Pires came on and that sort of kick started Arsenal in a way...Ljungberg even though he didnt do much was defending well and tried his best....but hey what can you do when the opposition was blatantly blocking him and the ref seemed to ignore it...think he needs to get down to specsavers soon the ref does :p.
 
I was gutted to see Arsenal go through. I'd have paid good money to have seen Lehman, Wenger and co in tears. I sensed a lot of over-confidence before the match with the Arsenal fans interviewed on SSN.

Here's hoping Barca or AC Milan do a job on them in Paris although i have a bad feeling the cup is already in Arsenal's hands. There's a feeling of fate about this one.

Wenger really would need to play someone to give more support to Henry though. I wouldn't be surprised if Adebeyor actually started.
 
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Well done Arsenal and Arsenal fans, not necessarily a match that lit the world alight, but they got the job done, defended very well and didn't concede. What about Lehmann? Class keeper. I just knew he was going to save it. It's a very nice feeling watching your team progress through the Champions League, so I know how you guys feel. And if you can get tickets or are not sure about going to Paris......GOOO You will never know when this opportunity will arise again. :) Who cares about the wife and kids, or girlfriends, it's a European Cup Final, put things into perspective here lads. ;)
 
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fozzybear said:
I was gutted to see Arsenal go through. I'd have paid good money to have seen Lehman, Wenger and co in tears. I sensed a lot of over-confidence before the match with the Arsenal fans interviewed on SSN.

Here's hoping Barca or AC Milan do a job on them in Paris although i have a bad feeling the cup is already in Arsenal's hands. There's a feeling of fate about this one.

Wenger really would need to play someone to give more support to Henry though. I wouldn't be surprised if Adebeyor actually started.
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the game was all about defence.... we didnt NEED to go there and attack. We needed to hold that home goal advantage. We played a 4-5-1 with Henry upfront alone (i think?). I just wish they took advantage of those counter attacks more... a few times it was 3 on 3 and they put on the brakes and all fell back... could have finished the tie... :o
 
Gooner14 said:
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I think the conditions took its toll on the players too. It was around 26oC during the day, 70% humidity and I can't imagine the temps dropped off considerably during the evening. I'd imagine the Arsenal players found it tough going especially as the weather in Blighty is just only starting to get a bit better but nowhere near those levels.

Henry looked absolutely shattered towards the end.

We played poorly, rode our luck at times but frankly don't give a damn now.:D
 
Was a little surprised with Henry tbh, thought he'd be much more up for this one, especially considering what happened at the weekend with Spurs.

But yes, he did look tired.

Disappointed with Hleb too, he has been an absolute star in the CL for us this season and the best is still to come from him but last night he was really poor. Still saw the odd bit of dribbling genius we've come to expect from him.
 
Hleb was disappointing offensively but defensive he was excellent and worked extremely hard for the team.

Star man for me (apart from Lehmann, what a legend!) was Gilberto.

The man has been taking a lot of stick during the first half of the season and rightly so for some of his performances. But the second half of the season he's been superb, especially in the Champions League.

He kept Riquelme quiet without actually man marking him. Gilberto was always there quickly closing down the space or nicking the ball away.
 
We played the worse game of the session but at the end of the day we are in the final.

Its going to be a hell of a game either way whoever we get. Hope we continue with the good luck.
 
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