The Belgian is quite right when he says Arsenal have been written off twice already.
What a marvellous defender Vermaelen is !
This guy could be a legend, as great as Sami Hyypia,who played 317 games for Liverpool over 10 seasons and scored 22 goals.
When Lehmann was in goal, I thought Arsenal needed more Germans. But now I think they need more Belgians.
Porto were pitiful but it was nice to see Nasri score the wonder-goal that ended Arsenal’s 15-minute wobble, when Nasri had to block a ball on Almunia’s goal-line.
Sol Campbell did well at the back, using his size and experience. And Vermaelen made several superb blocks and tackles.
Vermaelen said, “I’m convinced that we can win this competition, otherwise I wouldn’t be stood here. You have to stay focused in every game and be confident in every game. As a football player, you can never be afraid of anyone. We’ve been written off twice already, I think. Can we have the last laugh? Maybe. We will see at the end of the season. We’re still in the race for the league and the Champions League. Maybe we can learn from the games we played against Chelsea and Manchester United.”
The early goal by Bendtner was crucial.
Nasri’s pass split Porto, Arshavin and keeper Helton went for the ball, the stretching defender played it to Bendtner, who knocked it in for 1-0 in nine minutes. And Arsenal then won 5-0. Even Eboue scored.
Wayne Rooney took Milan apart again.
He scored two goals in the San Siro and two more at Old Trafford. And the second one wasn’t a header.
Man United beat Milan 4-0 and 7-2 on aggregate.
I’m Rooney’s biggest fan but never thought he would get close to Cristiano’s 42 goals in 2008.
When he headed in Gary Neville’s cross in 13 minutes, I remembered what Rooney said years ago : “I think of myself as a centre forward.”
That remark did not make as much sense then as it does now. He is becoming a belligerent British Papin, which is how Fabio Capello first saw Rooney’s England role. Fabio has helped Wayne a lot, I think
Nani curved a lovely ball round the last defender and Wayne slotted for 5-2 on aggregate. I didn’t see that goal till later. I knew the contest over when the header went in for 4-2, so I flicked over to Real Madrid v Lyon.
That was 1-1 on aggregate, Cristiano having scored a power goal after five minutes and six seconds. A measured, chipped through ball by Guti allowed super-fast CR9 to explode beyond Cris and the ball, having bounced twice before reaching the penalty area, then bounced twice more before Cristiano hit it left footed through the legs of Hugo Lloris from a very narrow angle to make it 1-1 on aggregate.
The goal came from a world class pass which left the ball almost stationary when Cristiano hit his shot. You could say it was lucky to go through Lloris’s legs. But Cristiano deserved his luck because he had the bottle to hit the ball early and hard with his weaker foot. Exceptional technique.
I reckoned an early goal like that would start an avalanche but Lyon, so organised and tenacious, played a disciplined waiting game as Madrid got more and more tense, following an uncharacteristic open goal missed by Higuain.
Released by Kaka, Higuain went round Loris outside the penalty area and stroked his shot against the inside of the post and saw the ball roll along the line and go beyond the other post. After that bad miss it was all tension, anxiety, frustration and fear.
Without the strategic brain of Xabi Alonso, without his cool head, there was no structure. Raul for Higuain was the call, not Raul for Kaka.
Raul came on and played angrily, which was exactly what was not needed.
At 1-1 they needed a cool head in the box, someone to make the right decisions, not more passion
Then, after 75, a sweet move of three passes on the left, Lisandro laid the ball slickly back, Bosnian teenager Miralem Pjanic took the ball on his body and buried the biggest goal of the French football season so far.
Panjic played for Metz at 16 and was being watched by Wenger in March 2008.
Lyon played very well and deserved to win. It’s a team game and Lyon’s teamwork was superior to Real Madrid’s starwork.
But Arsenal are still the biggest French club.
Real Madrid should keep coach Pellegrini, give him control of transfers, and fire president Florentino Perez. Unfortunately, it doesn’t work like that.
Madrid will win the league now and then Pellegrini will be sacked by a president who fired the lugubrious Del Bosque for having the wrong image and hired handsome Carlos Queioz, who was useless.
Leonardo is a smashing chap but Milan need an older coach and a younger team.
All that stuff about the famous “Milan Lab” is bollocks. A lab can’t track runners, can’t score goals, can’t make tackles, can’t contain Wayne Rooney.
On the latter, Leonardo said, “This year Rooney arrived, perhaps, in the best level. And I think he is one of the best players in the world. Because he’s very complete, very strong, very fast. I think this year he’s the best, to score a lot of goals in different ways. That’s why I think he’s a complete striker.”
Wenger has said he doesn’t mind getting Man United or Chelsea in the quarter-final.
Be careful what you wish for, Arsene.
The draw for the quarter-finals is on Friday, March 19 at 11 a.m.
Fiorentina, the most interesting team in the Champions League, were within five minutes of beating Bayern Munich. But they lost on away goals. Jovetic, the Montenegrin winger-playmaker who scored two goals against Liverpool, scored another two in Munich.
Chelsea play Inter next week.
This morning I was thinking : Can I still do this? I don’t feel sharp or original today. When was my last piece on ANR?
It seems a really long time ago. I had to look it up : March 1. That was when I wrote Big, British Sol Campbell made the difference at Stoke.
That seems like years ago. I put that up at 11 p.m. last Tuesday, March 2, five hours before the minicab came to take us to Gatwick.
On Tuesday, March 9, our easyJet landed at 4pm and we got home in time for kick-off and saw Arsenal beat Porto 5-0. Without Fabregas. I didn’t expect Arsenal to beat Porto 5-0 without Fabregas because I didn’t realise how feeble Porto would be.
Trouble is, I don’t feel as if I’m back yet. I’ve always been like that. After three weeks in Algarve, it always took me another three weeks to find my London rhythm. One year I flew back and was sitting in the QPR press box that August evening and ten minutes into the second half I realised that Rangers were now kicking the other way.
After that stupidly zonked-out moment I never went to a game on the day I came back.
I had learned that landing is one thing, coming back is another.
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