By Myles Palmer
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ONE SMALL STEP for mankind.
Arsenal beat Bayern Munich 1-0.
It wasn’t enough.
They were one goal short, as they have been for seven years.
But they beat Bayern. So it’s a small step forward.
On his Champions League debut, Senderos was superb, their best player.
He should play from now till the end of the season.
In fact, if Senderos can repeat that form in the FA Cup at Bolton on Saturday, they should give him the No 6 shirt next year.
The Champions League is a competition for tacticians and Felix Magath got it right last night.
Bayern pressed in the first half (playing at a high tempo like a Premiership side, or Sheffield United) and then defended the box in the second.
Their pressing was ferocious. They got in amongst Arsenal and disrupted their passing at source, Magath having picked Guerrero with Pizarro, so he had two strikers..
For 41 minutes it was purgatory for Gooners.
Then Henry got in on the left at high speed but it was impossible to score from that angle against Kahn, unless you slip it low between his legs.
Until Pires came on, it didn’t look like Arsenal.
No fluidity, no pattern, no partnerships. Every partnership that means anything had been disrupted by injury before it was disrupted by Bayern’s pressing.
Oldest cliche in football : you can only play as well as you are allowed to play. And since Arsenal only have one way of playing, and always pick the same players, you can plan against them.
REYES was hopeless. He seemed to be wearing somebody else’s boots.
Overall, Reyes, Ljungberg and Bergkamp were poor.
The other eight boys did well.
The Italian referee was positionally poor and far too whistle-happy.
Second half, Arsenal were better, as they had more room to play.
On 54, Henry found Vieira with a great pass but his shot was wide of the far post.
On 65, Ashley Cole hit a 40-yard lofted pass and Henry got away from Lucio and brought the ball down as only he can and hit it low into the far corner.
25 minutes to go, one more goal needed.
Pires came on for Reyes, Fabregas for Flamini, van Persie for Freddie, the game opened up, Lehmann made a sensational save from Ballack, tipping over, then raced out to the edge of the box to stop Guerrero.
SO ARSENAL WON, but lost 3-2 on aggregate.
Thought they would draw the game 1-1, so they had done better than I expected.
TEAMS :
ARSENAL : Lehmann; Lauren, Senderos, Touré, Cole; Ljungberg (Van Persie, 79), Vieira, Flamini (Fabregas, 64), Reyes (Pires, 64); Bergkamp; Henry.
Subs not used: Taylor (gk), Gilberto Silva, Clichy, Owusu-Abeyie.
BAYERN MUNICH : Kahn; Sagnol, Lucio, Kovac, Lizarazu; Demechelis, Salihamidzic (Hargreaves, 90), Ballack, Deisler (Ze Roberto, 72); Guerrero (Linke, 84), Pizarro.
Subs not used: Rensing (gk), Hashemian, Schweinsteiger.
Ref: Di Santis (Italy).
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For English clubs, it was all very predictable.
Chelsea and Liverpool went through, Man United and Arsenal went out.
WHEN MOURINHO started Kezman, not Tiago, I was amazed, since I thought it would be a cat-and-mouse first half.
In a thriller, Chelsea beat Barcelona 4-2.
The most exciting Champions League game of the season.
Mourinho went 4-3-3 with Kezman, Gudjohnsen and Duff, and used Joe Cole on the right of midfield with only Lampard and Makelele to protect his back four.
Cole took van Bronckhorst apart and Kezman started the blitz by breaking on the right and crossing low to Gudjohnsen, whose great touch took him inside Belletti and created just enough space to smash a shot past Valdez.
8 minutes, 1-0 to Chelsea and 2-2 on aggregate.
Makelele’s studs then rammed into Iniesta’s shin, a shocking, calculated foul which could have been a straight red card. Collina ignored it.
In 17, Joe Cole’s deflected shot was parried by Valdes and Lampard popped in from 4 yards.
In 19, Duff made it 3-0 after racing onto Cole’s through pass.
Abysmal defending by Barcelona to concede three goals in 11 minutes.
KEEPER PETR CECH had a fantastic game
He almost got to the Ronaldinho penalty for 3-1 and he was as gobsmacked as the rest of us when Ronaldinho toepoked into the corner from 20 yards.
He was standing still on the arc of the D with Carvalho directly in front of him.
The cheekiest goal of all time ?
Second half, Barcelona dominated and it was 4-4 on aggregate from 38 to 76 minutes, which would put them through on away goals.
Duff, Lampard and Joe Cole were having to work back and make tackles in fullback positions.
Ronaldinho faded and Chelsea were pretty belligerent and British and they eventually won the game on sheer guts and spirit and perseverance.
CECH made a phenomenal reflex save in 73, tipping an Iniesta shot onto the inside of the post. One more inch and that shot would have gone in
John Terry’s hero is Tony Adams and after 76 he did a Tony Adams, signalling for a near post corner from Duff.
Running six yards diagonally, Terry glanced the ball down into the far corner.
Carvalho impeded Valdes slightly, but the keeper would not have reached the bouncing header. Without a man on then post, it was always gonna be a goal.
Tiago replaced Gudjohnsen, almost immediately
MOURINHO is a smart tactician and a very naughty man who says things he should not say and does things he should not do. But I like him.
ONE REASON I love the Champions League is that I can predict it quite well.
Milan beat Man Utd 1-0 again, as I figured.
Ruud van Nastelrooy was too rusty, as I said.
Watching the Chelsea game on ITV, the captions told me it was 0-0 at the San Siro and I did not flick over once to ITV2 and then by a sheer fluke (or ESP), I flicked over and it was 61 minutes and I saw Cafu cross the ball beyond Rio and saw Crespo send that looping header over Tim Howard.
JUVENTUS beat Real Madrid 2-0, but had to do it in extra time, Zalayeta rifling home the crucial goal in 116 after sub Trezeguet scored in 75
Liverpool went through, although I didn’t dream they would go to Leverkusen and beat them 3-1.
I rate Rafael Benitez. But he has a helluva lot of work to do to make that team consistent. His side is better without Harry Kewell.
SO THAT’S IT FOR ANOTHER YEAR
Arsenal are among the top 16 clubs in Europe. Occasionally, Arsenal are among the top eight. That’s where they are.
These players, and this style of play, have put Arsenal in the top 10 in Europe, let’s say.
They need five new faces and far more coaching.
CHELSEA might play AC Milan next month.
Liverpool might draw Juventus. Or Bayern.
For Arsenal, it’s the FA Cup Sixth Round at Bolton, Saturday lunchtime.
They are quite good at the FA Cup. They are not very good at the Champions League.
As I said last November, it would be lovely if they could be part of it.
March 10th 2005.