As we know, every football match is different. On this particular night, Real Madrid were made for Arsenal.
Too old, too rich, too complacent, they were outrun and outplayed by a sparky Arsenal team who had enjoyed six days off and had been nicely tuned up.
The Professor specialises in starting games with a 20-minute spell of quick pass-and-move.
That was why, against all expectations, Arsenal became the first English club to win in the Bernabeu.
For once, 4-5-1 worked because Real Madrid let them play. Fabregas flitted around making short passes, Ljungberg made clever runs, and Reyes used his pace to good effect.
Arsenal began with such verve that they opened up Real twice in the first eight minutes.Henry played in Reyes, whose shot was saved by Casillas, then Henry played in Ljungberg, who tried to take the ball round the keeper and allowed Roberto Carlos to get a touch. Then Reyes crossed perfectly to the far post where Henry sent a powerful header just wide.
Between chance 2 and chance 3, Jonathan Woodgate limped off with a hamstring injury.That was serious blow to Madrid and after that they lacked shape, leadership, fluency, rhythm, everything.
But when half-time came it was still 0-0. You wondered if Madrid would improve when coach Lopez Caro replaced Ronaldo, who is big roly-poly Brazilian pudding.
Second half started, Ronaldo passed the ball to Fabregas for the goal ! Ramos passed to Ronaldo (46 minutes 18 seconds) and he let the ball bounce off him to Fabregas, who released Henry, who held off Ronaldo, waltzed between Guti and Meija, zoomed down the left side, and hit a left foot shot across Casillas before Ramos could get to him (46.28).
A sensational solo goal to win the game, a stylish away goal, a big goal in Arsenal’s season, maybe.
The Champions League game was easy to summarise : Arsenal deserved to win and Real Madrid deserved to lose.
Eboue was better than Cicinho, Toure was better than Mejia, Senderos was better than Ramos, and Flamini was as good as Roberto Carlos. Senderos was caught once by Beckham, who tackled him and then ran onto the pass from Ronaldo and shot, but Lehmann saved with his leg.
Ljungberg’s work-rate was terrific. His final ball was rubbish and his shooting was feeble, but fiery Freddie contributed hugely to a historic victory.
Gilberto did OK in a tame game that suited him.
Fabregas was neat, busy and accurate.
Hleb did good things and sloppy things.
The back five played well : Eboue tenacious and quick, Toure agile, Senderos steady, Flamini grafting against Beckham, getting close enough to put him off when Zidane’s classy cross gave him a headed chance, and Lehmann made two good saves from Beckham.
ON WEDNESDAY Rob Hughes phoned.
“Do you know anybody who thought Arsenal would win last night?” I asked.
“Only Wenger,” he said.
We laughed.
Arsene Wenger is having his worst season at Arsenal when he draws Real Madrid in the Champions League last 16. The first leg is in the Bernabeu and he is without Lauren, Campbell, Cole, Clichy and van Persie.
Before the game Arsene says, “I have complete confidence that Thierry will have a great game. And that his attitude will be spot-on, like it always has been. The fate of the big, big players in the big games, they’re under huge pressure but Thierry deals very well with that.”
POOR OLD RONALDO is a sad, fat fraud who looks as if he needs a shrink.
The electrifying centre forward, El Phenomenon, is a now a depressed and alienated 29-year old who complains that, “The Madrid fans don’t love me.” Of course not, amigo, if you play like that. They don’t love you because you will not run.
Not since the farce of the 1998 World Cup Final, when Edmundo was named in the team, and Brazil did not warm up, and then Ronaldo came out and played like a zombie, have we seen a performance as bizarre as this by a superstar footballer.
After 63 minutes the event found a new dimension when Raul came on as a sub. Incredibly, coach Lopez Caro left Ronaldo on and took off Robinho, his most energetic forward.
That was the moment when the Florentino Perez Galactico Marketing Circus finally stood bollock naked, exposed as something that has become ridiculously unbalanced in its emphasis on global icons at the expense of having an effective football team. The Santiago Bernabeu stadium had become the Theatre of the Absurd.
CONCLUSION ?
Spanish football is really fun to watch because it has flair players and lovely moves, but the Primera Liga is quite lazy. There is space everywhere, grass everywhere, because players don’t track each other’s runs.
Real Madrid were made-to-measure for Arsenal because they gave them room to play. Reyes only got clattered twice in one of his easiest game since he left Spain. Shame he spoiled it with gamesmanship, crawling back onto the field when he was bumped in an aerial challenge, to waste time. Italian referee Stefan Farina did not book him because he sees that every week in Serie A.
The night was a massive downer for David Beckham in his first game against an English club since he joined Madrid in 2003.
He said, “I said before that if we didn’t perform we wouldn’t win the game and we didn’t perform. Arsenal played well, but we didn’t play like we have done for the last two months. I don’t know what happened. They got the space to enjoy themselves and they did well. It was a really bad performance from the whole team. The players were not working for each other.”
Second leg?
Who knows?
Every football match is different.