By Myles Palmer
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I DON’T KNOW ENOUGH about Rosenborg to guess how well they might perform against Arsenal.
If we believe that Arsenal can stroll though this group, then they do not have to win in Norway.
But if Rosenborg can lose 2-1 in Athens to Panathinaikos, and go on to beat Arsenal, then anybody can beat anybody in the group and it will not be a stroll for any team.
I can’t be apprehensive about the game because I’m so unfamiliar with Rosenborg’s players.
Ajax, Bayern, Deportivo, PSV, Dynamo Kiev – I know quite a bit about them, so I can make an educated guess in a preview.
Rosenborg are the top Norwegian club. They play as a unit. They have a very good home record.
And they will be encouraged by the fact that Arsenal will not have Gilberto, who is out for a month with a back injury.
The clash of styles, the testing of temperaments in different conditions in different cities, is what makes the Champions League so fascinating.
No two football matches are the same.And a week is a long time in this game.
Arsenal need the kind of controlled tactical approach that gave them a 1-0 win in Lyon.
Can they play that way in Trondheim on a cold night in reindeer country?
We don’t know. It’s a step into the unknown, so we just have to wait and see.
WAYNE ROONEY is England’s finest footballer since Bobby Charlton and he might soon be the best player in the Champions League.
Although he had a few misplaced passes, as you do after 96 days without playing football, Rooney was awesome on his Man United debut last night.
He was electric, but also refrigerated.
He scored three goals and had an assist in the 6-2 demolition of Fenerbahce.
You could see it coming as he walked on the field : the bulldog genius has lost two stone !
He was slim, calm, deadly, a boy assassin in football boots.
Giggs headed in on 7, then Rooney took over, bursting through, going past Rustu to the line, beating the scrambling keeper by kicking the ball against him, the cutting inside from the byeline to hit a left foot bullet just over the bar.
What a goal it would have been.
WONDERWAYNE WAS BACK!
Within minutes he took RVN’s pass and hit a left foot rocket first time for 2-0, and after 28 he smashed a right foot cannonball across Rustu and it flew perfectly into the bottom corner for 3-0.
As I’ve been saying all year, Rooney is the real deal.
The finality of that finish for 3-0, the way he made it routine, made it look inevitable, marked him as a technician of the highest class.
He is a truly phenomenal technician, but also a warrior. He is a freak.
Rooney has become the supreme tabloid figure in English life.
He had been away for 96 days and had come back to score two stunning goals in 28 minutes.
If you had forgotten how awesome Wayne Rooney can be – I had not – you now remembered his sensational exploits at Portugal 2004.
Nobre got a goal back but Rooney took a freekick in 53 and Beckhamed it over the wall for 4-2.
HAS ANYBODY EVER scored a hat-trick on their Champions League debut?
SIR ALEX is talking out of his arse when he says the lad is 3 or 4 years away from being the finished article.
Rooney might be 3 or 4 games away from proving he is the best player in the Champions League.
PLEASED THAT Dynamo Kiev came from behind to beat Leverkusen 4-2.
I think Kiev are a good side.
Rosenborg v Arsenal? Who knows?
It’s over to you, Va-Va-Voom, mon ami.
It’s your turn tonight, Jose Reyes.
If ever Arsenal needed a goal from Freddie the scrapping Swede, it’s in Trondheim.
29th September 2004