Can PSV do what Roma did to Lyon last night ?
I don’t think so. I fancy Arsene’s low-scoring side to squeeze through and pursue the only trophy they can win.
Arsenal can meet Valencia, Liverpool, Roma or Chelsea in Friday’s draw if they eliminate PSV. And they would like revenge on both clubs.
Last night I watched Liverpool v Barcelona, a pulsating contest with a sense of an event unfolding, something compelling, plenty of mistakes but every mistake adding to the drama.
Messi can look boxed in but his wizardry lets him do things, and while Ronaldinho was peripheral he was also menacing. But as the first half went on I realised that Samuel Eto’o was ridiculously rusty.It was as if he had been out for 44 months, not 4 months. Eto’0 was a passenger trying to play from memory.
Riise fired a shot just wide, hit the bar, had one kicked off the line. Liverpool could have been 3-0 up at half-time and by then I thought Barca could play for the next 50 years without scoring, so I watched the Chelsea-Porto second half because a story seemed to be developing.
The bizarre positioning of right back Diarra and centreback Carvalho in the 15th minute was the kind of thing managers have nightmares about.The two defenders were so far from each other, and so far from Quaresma, that the boy could not believe his luck as he zoomed through the middle onto a simple pass by Lucho Gonzales and drilled it under the unprotected and advancing Petr Cech : 1-0 to Porto.
This was the only goal Chelsea have conceded at home in the Champions League all season.
Early in the second half a boob by keeper Helton, allowing Robben’s feeble 25-yarder to go in off him, made it 1-1.
At Anfield, Liverpool’s brilliantly organised back four was at last breached by crafty sub Eidur Gudjohnsen, who strolled onto a sweet, shallow-angled pass by Xavi, just beating the offside trap, and waltzed round Reina to score the goal that made it 2-2 on aggregate.
So it after 75 minutes it was 2-2 on aggregate at both Anfield and Stamford Bridge.
Then Chelsea’s winner came in 79 when Drogba headed Cole’s cross to Shevchenko, who nodded back to Ballack, whose left foot shot was aimed down and past Helton for a 3-2 aggregate victory over Mourinho’s old club. Good goal ! English football !
TONIGHT, when Arsenal score the first goal, another match starts, a contest on another level of nerve.
After considering the question for two days, I’ve decided that PSV striker Jefferson Farfan isn’t that good. He is better than Emile Heskey but not as good as Cyrille Regis. If he was a world-beater he wouldn’t be playing for PSV.
Farfan scored 16 goals this season but none in five Champions League games before tonight. He hit a fizzy one against AC Milan two years ago but that was a ball that flicked off Kaladze’s head and he ran onto it and smashed it in off Dida’s near post – a somewhat streaky goal. Well-taken, an important strike against a very good team, but a bit lucky, a gift. Farfan ran onto a ball on his right foot and hit it low and hard. Most professional centre forwards can do that and many amateurs can do it too.
This is a risky thing to say but I’m gonna put my balls on the rails and say it loud and clear : Farfan will not trouble Gilberto, Gallas and Toure.
He’s not that good. He’s a useful striker, that’s all. His main job at the Emirates will be to fall over and look for free-kicks.
English clubs can meet each other in Friday’s draw and if Arsenal are there it will be the first time four clubs from one nation have been in the quarter- finals.
Manchester United and AC Milan have more class than Liverpool but Liverpool are the hardest team to beat.
Bayern Munich are 3-2 down against Real Madrid but they have Makaay, Pizzaro and several other goalscorers and I expect them to beat Madrid, even without Lucio, their best defender.
There again, I expected Lyon to beat Roma but they lost 2-0.
Tuesday was a hard night for everybody. Liverpool lost but went through on away goals and Frank Rijkaard said,”Other teams won’t like playing against them.” I’ve really enjoyed Frank’s triple champions but his Barcelona team will break up now.
Overall, it was a big night, a tense night with a lot at stake. Chelsea went a goal down but won 3-2. First half goals by Totti and Mancini put Roma in charge at Lyon, and tempers flared when Chivu grabbed Fred’s arm. Fred swung his arm and smacked Chivu in the gob.
Valencia went through on away goals after a 0-0 and a big punch-up which continued into the tunnel. Has such a squalid explosion of kicking and punching ever been seen before in the Champions League ?
If Arsenal draw 0-0, I hope they will be more dignified than that.
I’ve said for four or five years that Arsenal don’t have enough ways of scoring a goal, and that their style, while attractive, is one-dimensional and predictable.That is why Ajax boss Ronaldo Koeman was able to draw 1-1 and 0-0 with them.
Tonight, four years later against another Koeman team, Arsenal need two goals. I think they will score two goals. But I don’t know how they will get them, or who will get them. Nobody does.
Probable teams :
ARSENAL (4-4-2): Lehmann; Djourou, Touré, Gallas, Clichy; Hleb, Fabregas, Gilberto, Ljungberg; Adebayor, Henry.
PSV ( 4-3-1-2): Gomes; Culina, Alex, Salcido, Sun Xiang; Afellay, Simons, Mendez; Cocu; Farfan, Kone.
Referee: Alain Hamer (Luxembourg).