Roma 1 Arsenal 0
Arsenal go through on penalties
How jammy was that?
Was that the jammiest victory of Wenger’s reign?
He was very subdued during the game. Any manager would be subdued watching his team play as dismally as this.
Everything Arsenal did was disappointing and extra time loomed for a long time.
This team is a raggle-taggle army of misfits and half-talents and they’re a million miles away from winning the Champions League.
That much was obvious in the Stadio Olimpico.
Sure, Arsenal hung in there and kept their nerve and won the penalty shoot-out.
But it was 120 minutes without a goal against a tired team of old men and crocks.
Imbecilic defending by Gallas to allow the unmarked Juan to score an early goal. Why did Gallas run over there? He moved in front of Toure, so that any pass between them would beat both. Totti’s pass bisected Toure and Gallas and the unmarked Juan slammed it in for 1-0 after nine minutes.
Arsenal were so lucky when the Clichy brought down Marco Motta in the box just before the interval
So lucky when Julio Baptista missed a header in 49. What a let off !
I thought : 3 seasons in the Emirates without one glory night.
Denilson lucky in 53 when the ref missed his late tackle.
Eboue’s low cross just eluded Bendtner.
So lucky in 79 when Julio Baptista missing a sitter from eight yards. What a plonker ! An Arsenal reject, a two-time Real Madrid reject, an unpopular Roma bench-warmer, Julio Baptista is the worst player in the last 16 of the Champions League and extra time was solely down to his incompetence. He could have wrapped up the game twice but wasn’t good enough. That’s leaving out his miskick to interupt a promising Roma counter-attack.
So lucky when Max Tenetto hit his penalty over the bar to hand Arsenal a 7-6 victory in the shoot-out.
Eduardo and Walcott came on and made no difference.
MADE NO DIFFERENCE, even though Roma were out on their feet.
It’s 11.55pm and I’m out on my feet, can hardly see the keyboard.
The other seven quarter-finalists are Liverpool, Man United, Chelsea, Barcelona, Bayern Munich, Porto and Villarreal.