Arsenal 0 – 0 Milan: Italian Jobbers Get Away With It
Add comment February 21st, 2008
Watching Arsenal last night was a bit like watching the Arsenal side of the previous couple of seasons. Brilliant, intricate football, but lacking a cutting edge. Looking back at the 90 minutes it’s hard to believe that Milan enter the second leg as favourites – for large portions of the game, they were clinging on.
Yesterday I talked about the vital midfield battle, and I think it’s safe to say Arsenal came out on top. Cesc Fabregas was particularly outstanding, putting in several inch-perfect tackles and the odd breathtaking pass to boot. If a couple of long range efforts had shared that degree of accuracy, the scoreline might’ve been very different.
We played a 4-5-1 with Eboue and Eduardo on the flanks – arguably neither is a natural winger, though it didn’t seem to matter. Fabregas was ably assisted by Mathieu Flamini and Aleksandr Hleb in winning the ball and keeping it from Milan’s assured clutches. The first half was a fairly even affair, with both sides taking the opportunity to size up before the opposition in what is essentially a 180 minute match. Although it was a scoreless draw after 45 minutes, Arsenal had suffered a loss: that of Kolo Toure, who was withdrawn with a calf injury, and could be out for up to a month. Philippe Senderos came on as his replacement, and put in an assured display – the Swiss defender seems to thrive on the slightly less frantic European stage.
As the first-half drew to a close, Arsenal were in the ascendency, and that pattern continued for pretty much the rest of the game. The second half was a barrage of Arsenal pressure. I can’t underestimate how good a performance it was: Clichy and Sagna (who showed tremendous spirit to play so well after the loss of his brother) were bombing on, whilst Adebayor was visibly worrying the ageing Milan backline. As the minutes ticked by the pressure increased exponentially, and it seemed only a mattter of time until we broke the deadlock, even more so when Nicklas Bendtner replaced Eduardo and we switched to 4-4-2.
There were two clear-cut chances to win the game – the first was an Emmanuel Eboue shot that squirted wide (not dissimilar to Tomas Rosicky’s miss at Portsmouth earlier this season… Rosicky – remember him?), and the second looked such a certain goal that I think there are probably still people stood dumbstruck in the stadium wondering how it didn’t go in. In the 93rd minute, substitue Theo Walcott produced an excellent run and cross to find in-form Emmanuel Adebayor three yards out. Somehow (and I don’t think I’ll ever use that word more aptly), the ball cannoned off the crossbar and away from danger. I suspect that after all those satanic prayers and sacrifices I made to prevent Gallas getting suspended, this miss represented a little bit of karmic retribution. So be it.
It really was one of those whereby you stick your head on it, and 9999 times out of 10000 it’s a goal. However this was that 10000th time, and a game that deserved a goal remained 0-0.
Which, it should be added, is never a bad reuslt in a home leg. It now means that a score draw in Milan would take us through. Crucially, Milan didn’t score, so any away goal we can muster in the San Siro will have a very profound effect on the tie.
Milan came for a draw and they got it. But I think they perhaps underestimated us, and will be nervous ahead of the second leg. For our part, we need to go there and attack them – unlike Milan, we don’t have a good enough to defence to sustain the kind of onslaught they survived tonight.
Overall, I’m very proud of the players. It was an excellent response to the trauma of Saturday, and a good stepping stone towards what I genuinely believe to be the most important game of the week: the Premier League match at Birmingham…
