ARSENE WENGER is ecstatic this week after a pulsating 0-0 draw at Highbury. He is purring as he watches his kids grow into a team. But he knows they need to score more goals.
This was a zero-zero in which Arsenal’s best players were Toure, Hleb, Eboue, Ljungberg, Lehmann and Ronaldo.
Zidane and Ronaldo couldn’t wait to get off that pitch. Their exit strategy was simple. At the final whistle, Zizou and Ronnie were three yards from each other and ran they immediately down the tunnel without a handshake.
Can anybody tell me why Ronaldo was on the pitch? If he is ambulant, do Nike insist that he starts?
Knock-out European football is sometimes about scoring an early goal in 180 minutes of football. Thierry Henry scored an early goal after 46 of the 180 minutes and that proved to be enough.
This week the first legs overshadowed the second legs, hugely.The goals that had already been scored shaped the play in the second 90, shaped what happened and what didn’t happen.The existing scores were far more inhibiting than we thought they would be.
Just as Barcelona started their match 2-1 up, Arsenal started theirs 1-0 up, and just as it was vital for Chelsea that Barca didn’t make it 3-1, so it was vital for Real Madrid that Arsenal didn’t make it 2-0.
But Barcelona didn’t want to concede and Arsenal didn’t either. Those factors shaped both games, giving us one second leg with two late goals, and another with no goals.
Both games were so big that they seemed to be semi-finals, as did AC Milan-Bayern Munich, so after the dramas of Tuesday-Wednesday it’s a bit weird to be going into… quarter-finals. Quarters usually come before semis.
REFEREE LUBOS MICHEL was weak, letting bad fouls by big names go unpunished. Roberto Carlos went flying in like an express train and kicked the end of Jose Reyes’s foot. Raul’s studs-up lunge at Lehmann was out of order but there was no booking.
Raul Bravo should have been sent off for a shocking X-certificate assault on Hleb in 85. Then he accosted Hleb on the ground, pulling him to his feet, suggesting he was time-wasting. Hleb, who was magnificent throughout, had just had his leg smashed from under him, sending him splat! onto the ground at high speed.
Holding the ball doggedly, skirmishing, scrapping with the tigerish Roberto Carlos, Alexandr Hleb showed the kind of fighting spirit and technique that would have won him a place in George Graham’s 1991 title team.
His partnership with Fabregas is developing well and he never left Eboue exposed once in 90 minutes. Hleb is like an old-fashioned inside-forward who can dictate the tempo of the game by holding onto the ball
He scrapped just as tenaciously against the combative Luis Boa Morte in the 4-0 win over Fulham on Saturday. On a recent Bad Boy count of fouls, reds and yellows, Boa Morte is the second roughest player in the Prem, after Kevin Davies of Bolton.
EBOUE is the new star of the greatest £2 million defence the world has ever seen. A key man for next season, but he will need a Martin O’Neill/David Rocastle/Trevor Steven type in front of him to keep the shape and cover his eboullient overlaps.
A long time ago, on February 18, I talked about the Ivory Coast boys giving the team a new dynamic. Other clubs must look at Arsene and wonder how he does it so cheaply.
Arsene paid £250,000 for Toure, nominal fees for Eboue & Flamini, and only £1.25 million for Senderos. So Jens Lehman, who is the best goalkeeper in the Premiership this season, has been protected by a £2 million defence.
Lehman’s save from Raul’s second shot, after his first hit the post and put Lehman on the ground, was miraculous. It was up there with Dave Seaman clawing Paul Peschisolido’s header off the line in the FA Cup semi-final against Sheffield United.
That Lehmann save from Raul was the highlight of the most epic 0-0 draw ever seen at Highbury. Mitch reckons the Liverpool game when Jimmy Hill came on as substitute linesman, was also a thrilling 0-0, but few except Mitch remember that game.
OTHER HIGHLIGHTS?
On 15, Zidane played Ronaldo into the box but Gilberto made a fine, stretching tackle, reaching the ball without touching Ronaldo.
On 42, Henry played in Reyes, who hit the bar from eight yards. A bad miss at this level
On 80, Freddie’s chargedown of a Roberto Carlos free-kick. David Beckham jumped very well to win diagonal balls but here he ran into Flamini because he did not have the pace to beat him. Becks bumped and rolled and got the free-kick expertly, as we saw we him do hundreds of times for Man United.
And the alert Freddie threw himself at the cannonball free-kick with reckless disregard for his own physical well-being. I love to see that and it’s not because I’m a sadist who enjoys the pain of others. If you could bottle Freddie’s bottle and get the whole squad to drink it you would have a fiery team which would win four trophies every year.
In 89, Cassano’s low cross was alarmingly miskicked over his own bar by young Senderos.
In 90, Real keeper Casillas came up for a corner, the ball was cleared to sub Pires, who was then comically chased by Casillas towards the halfway line and Pires stroked a long shot towards the empty goal but the bionic Carlos, legs pumping like pistons, just got there to stop the slowly-rolling ball. Pires should have taken it on another ten yards before shooting.
Tension, drama, missed chances, the hottest atmosphere for decades – a historic night where the heroes were bigger than the zeros.
NO WONDER president Florentino Perez resigned. If Madrid could solve their problem by taking an ad the headline would be : WANTED – Football manager who is proven club-builder, must be attacking coach who plays stylish football.
There’s only one guy with that CV and he is not available.
Expect Perez to take charge again in 18 months.