THE EUROPEAN CUP FINAL is a game Arsene Wenger goes to every year. It’s an end-of-season social occasion for Platini, Beckenbauer, Cruyff, Capello, Sacchi, Houllier, Benitez and many other luminaries from the world’s most popular sport.
Normally, Arsene might chat to all those guys in the course of the evening, but he might not see them tonight, as he will be working.
No London club has ever won the European Cup.We live in Europe’s biggest city but the European Cup has never been won by Spurs,Chelsea or Arsenal.
Big players for a big night ?
JENS LEHMANN got Arsenal to Paris by saving Riquelme’s penalty. And last May he won the FA Cup by making saves in the shoot-out against Manchester United.
He is big character and a better keeper than Victor Valdes.
HENRY? Will he finally turn it on in a final? Let’s wait and see.
SENDEROS would get the nod over Campbell if I was picking the team. The Swiss somehow gets away with his mistakes, Sol doesn’t. And Senderos is a natural talker and leader.But Senderos has only had three days training and Sol has had three games in eight days.
RONALDINHO ? We know what he can do : everything. In any part of the pitch, in the centre circle, on the touchline, inside the box, in the D – wherever he is, Ronaldinho can invent the game from moment to moment, with both feet, better than any footballer on the planet, better than Zidane, Rooney, anybody.
Ronaldinho is creative and his zig-zag wriggling dribbles can destroy any defence.His pinpoint passes, like the one for Giuly’s goal against Milan, are just fabulous. And Ronaldinho is also strong. We saw the way John Terry bounced off him when he scored that goal against Chelsea.
SAMUEL ETO’O is a fireball who has been too wound up in recent weeks. He has been trying too hard, shooting from silly positions.Cameroon did not qualify so this is his World Cup Final. Sammy will be hyper-motivated. But if he snatches at shots, rushes passes, tries to shoot from 30 yards, he will fail to make the impact that his talent threatens to make
MESSI could win the match from the bench. While Giuly is a left-footed right winger who can make runs into scoring positions, Messi is more than that. Messi is a little genius.
FRANK RIJKAARD reckons Arsenal will sit back and counter-attack but I think they will press.
Frank thinks we will see the Arsenal of the El Madrigal and I think we will see the Arsenal of the Bernabeu.
But Frank knows, and I know, that Arsenal will have to be better than they were in the Bernabeu because Barcelona are a much younger team than Real Madrid.
Barcelona only beat Milan’s old farts by one goal and were very lucky when Shevchenko’s header was wrongly disallowed.
AT MONACO, Arsene used to visit Milanello, the Milan training ground.
Arrigo Sacchi was the Pope of pressing. Some years ago I defined pressing as attacking when you don’t have the ball.And Arsenal have recently become much better at playing without the ball. That is why they have kept ten clean sheets in their last ten Champions League games.
The most awesome exhibition of pressing was in the 1994 final when Capello’s AC Milan pulverised Barcelona by 4-0. Three of the four goals came from winning the ball high up the field.(Not a lot of people know that, as Maurice Micklewhite once said.)
Arsene would love to do that in Paris.
He might take the view that Ronaldinho is irrepressible.If so, Arsenal will press Edmilson, Deco & Van Bronckhorst, the players who give Ronaldinho the ball.
Once Ronaldinho has the ball, it might be too late. If he goes off on a slalom, as he did when he took Real Madrid apart at the Bernabeu, he can swerve inside Eboue and do to Toure what he did to Sergio Ramos, although he might not beat Lehmann as easily as he beat Casillas.
Eboue is too easily beaten on the inside. Eto’o could cut inside Eboue and hit a right foot shot. Ronaldinho could do the same.
HAVING SAID ALL THAT, Ronaldinho has been carrying a thigh injury and he was not at his best against AC Milan in the semi.
Barcelona have a fine team, but they have to turn up and play 90 minutes. How fit are they? Have they faced a team who hustled them as much as Arsenal will? Can Arsenal’s relentless skirmishing, with Freddie in the thick of it, wear them down and disrupt their rhythms?
I’m expecting a tense, tight, hectic game with plenty of free-kicks.
WHAT WILL DECIDE THE FINAL ?
Well, Arsene Wenger has applied the science of athletics to his football teams.That could pay off for him tonight.When they played Juventus they’d had nine days off because the Portsmouth game was postponed. Arsene’s team is always better when it has a week or more to prepare. He’s had ten days before Paris and that will help a lot. He is a master of orchestrating the build-up, and fine-tuning his side, mentally and physically.I expect Arsenal to be full of running.
In sum, Barcelona can outplay Arsenal, but Arsenal can outrun Barcelona
It’s a European Cup Final and the result is the result.
What Arsene has done over the last ten years has been outstanding and what his team has done since beating Real Madrid on Tuesday February 21st has been marvellous.
He plays stylish football with young players and I’d give him 10/10 for that.
He deserves a reward and I reckon he will get it because his team will be stronger and quicker in the last half hour.
I really hope Arsene wins it because he has contributed so much to football in our time.