VILLARREAL is a small club and a rehab club.
It’s small because it’s a town of 48,000 people just off the motorway between Seville and Barcelona.
It’s a rehab club because it takes in misfits who have failed at other clubs and gives them a stage on which to express themselves.
Jose Mari failed at AC Milan, Forlan didn’t make it at Man United, and Riquelme did not adjust to Barcelona
Will Riquelme do more than he did at Highbury?
I would think so, yes. A master of the disguised pass, the disguised shot, the disguised free-kick, Juan Roman Riquelme is Jose Pekerman’s playmaker in the Argentina team.
Did you hear what Tacchinardi said about him? He said “He’s like the Zidane of five years ago.” If anybody else said that I would ignore it, but Zidane played for Juventus for five years from 1996 to 2001 and Tacchinardi played in midfield with him.
In the first leg Sorin only attacked for three minutes, after the Toure goal. He attacked from 45 to 48 minutes of the first half. The rest of the time Sorin, who can grab goals, stayed back in that tight three-man midfield screen.
At 1-0 down, Villareal chose damage limitation and that strategy will continue.They will contain and probe tonight and try to nick a goal and take it from there. Coach Manuel Pellegrini wants his three halfbacks – Josico, Senna and Sorin – to close down all the little spaces that Fabregas likes to run into and pass into.
So the second leg will not be a blitz, a bombardment. It will be tense and tactical, a low-scoring game with a few scares.
YES, IT’S A FINELY BALANCED CONTEST
Arsenal are superior in running power and improvisation, but Villareal are superior in organisation, tactical discipline and set-pieces.
Many pople have said : Arsenal will get a goal over there.
I’ve not said that. But after Henry’s amazing goal against Spurs, he can score anywhere.
Arsenal gave tiny keeper Sebastian Viera a six-hour medical and then said they rejected him because of a cyst on his hip. But they passed on him because he is too short.
ARSENAL WILL GO THROUGH. It might be a squeeze, but they will go through.
The first leg annoyed me because (1) Senderos and Toure missed two headers in a way that convinces me that they don’t practice such mundane things and (2) he didn’t bring his subs on early enough to press for the second goal that would have finished it.
So, for me, the first leg was unsatisfying. Arsenal had won, as I said they would, but it was unsatisfying. Tonight, I want satisfaction and I expect Arsenal to go through because Forlan and Jose Mari are not as good as the strikers they face every Saturday.
HLEB, REYES and Fabregas will give Villarreal plenty to think about.
Sol Campbell will be OK. Reo-Coker isn’t playing.
Three games in six days is a big ask and Gilberto has already played well in two of them. He was Mr Versatile against Spurs, covering at the back, releasing van Persie with the best pass of the game, winning balls in the air in attack late in the game, making some long sprints in counter-attack.
This is the local coastline of Jose Antonio Reyes and he will feel completely at home in El Madrigal. He will love being back in eastern Spain, as will Fabregas. Those two will enjoy the ambience and respond to it and play big roles in helping Arsenal reach the final in Paris.
Real Madrid was the biggest 0-0 in Arsenal’s long history but by tomorrow it might be the second biggest.
Tomorrow morning the holy grail will be in sight.
Arsenal’s first European Cup Final ! Wow !
Barcelona and Arsenal. the two most entertaining teams in the world, will meet in one 90-minute contest on neutral ground.
Last season the best football match of the season was the last one, when Liverpool turned over Milan in Istanbul after being 3-0 down.
It’s very, very rare that the last match of the season is the most spectacular.