THE FIRST 18 MINUTES was a lovely game of football which was shaping up like one the best European Cup Finals for years. As a contest, it was everything we wanted it to be.
But in the 18th minute the biggest game of the season was wrecked.
Gilberto’s sloppy pass hit Hleb on the chest and Samuel Eto’s robbed Hleb and gave the ball to Ronaldinho, who found Eto’o running beyond a square back four, and Lehmann, totally exposed, did the only thing he could do. He came out of his box and went for the ball with his foot but the quicker man got there first and Lehmann grabbed his ankle and the loose ball went to Giuly who rolled it in for 1-0.
But Norwegian referee Terje Hauge had blown for a foul and he gave Lehman a red card and Ronaldinho a free-kick, which he hit wide.
By disallowing the goal, Hauge disallowed the match, disallowed the spectacle. If he had a brain he would have realised that the first goal had been scored in the European Cup Final, and he would have booked Lehmann and we could all have seen eleven against eleven and maybe a classic between the two most stylish teams in the competition.
After that Hauge had a very poor game, giving atrocious decisions against both sides. He allowed Marques and Puyol to kick Henry black and blue, and instead of booking Van Bommel for vicious fouls, he allowed the thuggish Dutchman to kick Thierry Henry and then, incredibly, booked Henry.
Clearly, Hauge was a shocking choice by Uefa as a referee for a Champions League Final.
In 37 minutes, Eboue raided on the right and then dived, pretending Puyol had clipped him, conning the ref into giving a free-kick. Henry clipped it over perfectly for Sol Campbell to score with his best-ever header for Arsenal.
AT HALF TIME, Iniesta came on for Edmilson and Barcelona played with a lot more zest.
When Henry missed that chance in 70, Arsenal were groggy. Their fatigue was palpable and the Spanish matadors, having wobbled because they were not creating chances, were now ready to apply the coup de grace.
With Fabregas on the field, Arsenal had the ball some of the time. Fabregas was on his own, missing Pires, who was sacrificed when Lehmann was sent off. When Fabregas went off in 74, and Flamini came on, Arsenal did not have the ball at all and Flamini only touched the ball once in 20 minutes.
REYES should have replaced Hleb sooner. Hleb, a team player who cannot play on his own, had a poor game. At least Reyes has pace and can play on his own,
In football, the first and best defence is possession of the ball. When you have ten men, chasing the ball against a technical team is slow suicide .
HENRIK LARSSON came off the bench to supply two short passes for goals in 76 and 81 minutes.
The equaliser came from a pass by Iniesta to Larsson, who played in Eto’o behind Eboue, who didn’t know he was there, and Eto’o lifted his shot over the shin of Almunia and into the net.It was a bad mistake by Eboue. He switched off. He didn’t realise. He didn’t look. He let a 31-goal striker run behind him and score his 32nd goal of the season. However, all young defenders make mistakes and all good defenders learn from them.
Then Larsson played a cute reverse ball into the run of sub Belletti and he fired a shot which was going wide of the far post. But the ball hit Almunia’s leg and went in for 2-1.
Henrik Larsson, once again, proved to be a wonderful fox in the box. He is special because he can come on as a sub and get into the game in 20 seconds. Most players take five or ten minutes. That’s why Larsson is a super-super-sub.
Arsenal had contained Barca well and made sure that in the last third they only had possession in wide positions until then. But as soon as Larsson came on, Barca got possession inside the box and that meant goals and defeat.
We saw the best of Eto’o and also the best of Larsson in this game.
SO ARSENAL lost 2-1 to the best team in the world. They outplayed Barcelona in the first 18 minutes and then contained them with ten men, then went ahead with ten men, luckily, and then contained them till the 76th minute. Then they ran out of steam and their reserve keeper let in two goals the first-choice keeper would have saved.
FRANK RIJKAARD started the game with a crafty switch, deploying Eto’o on the left wing because he is better defender than Ronaldinho, and moving the Brazilian into the middle, where he had a mediocre game amid a throng of markers. When the final whistle went, Ronaldinho looked embarrassed. He knew he had not delivered the world class performance everyone had expected.
Overall, Arsenal’s best Champions League campaign ever. They beat Real Madrid and Juventus and Villarreal and gave the best team in the world a game with ten men, so they are not too far away. They have learned how to keep clean sheets in Europe and they reached their first final – and Lehmann still has not conceded a goal.If they played Barcelona again next week with eleven men they would beat them.
THIERRY HENRY has not been helped by uncertainty over his future. And the undeserved booking, early in H2, when Van Bommel kicked Henry after Henry got to the ball first, would have disturbed him and played on his mind. He can’t handle injustice.
But he played with tremendous passion and concentration, chasing defenders, taking kicks, leading by example, having the best game he has ever had in a final.
THIERRY IS STAYING at Arsenal for another four years because it’s unfinished business.He has won nothing as Arsenal captain and he now says the club is his family.I always said he would stay because, whatever else we think about Thierry, he is not dumb.
Arsenal is his paradise and he is obsessed with making his mark in history.He can make more history between now and 2010.
The real fans were restricted to both ends of the Stade De France and the stands at the side of the pitch were full of sponsors’ guests, as they will probably be in the World Cup.
I’M TOLD THAT the second half was very painful for Gooners, scores of whom left their seats and went downstairs to huddle together and comfort each other. Their anxiety levels were so high that they felt too ill to watch the game.