Gunners hold their nerve on tricky night in Rome
33 comments March 12th, 2009
Roma 1 – 0 Arsenal (Juan 10) (agg 1-1)
Highlights here, Arsene’s reaction here
Thank God for that. After an incredibly tight second leg, close primarily because of the failure of either side to seize the initiative in the tie, Arsenal qualified for the quarter-final of the Champions League after defeating Roma on penalties.
After some terrible defending allowed Juan to draw the tie level early on, penalties felt somehow inevitable. With our flight to Italy having been delayed by three hours, the game itself seemed destined to drag on for what felt like an even longer period of time.
Still, end it had to, and end it eventually did when Max Tonetto blazed over Roma’s eigth penalty. Credit must go to our takers – even Eduardo, who missed, showed great courage to step up first after a year out with injury. But Van Persie, Walcott, Nasri, Denilson, Toure, Sagna, and Diaby all held their nerve in the face of a hostile Roman crowd.
I really have no time for anything more this morning. I am actually awake at this un-Godly hour (it’s 5am right now) and I have to head off to a work thing. I’ll be away for a couple of days, but expect to be back to report on the Blackburn match on Sunday. In the meantime, you can stay up-to-date(ish) over on twitter.
To sign off, a hearty thankyou to our incredible away fans, who were audible over the din of the Italians throughout yesterday’s game, and an even heartier ‘Get Well Soon’ to the unlucky Arsenal fan who fell victim to one of Roma’s despicable Ultras. Frankly, the rest of Europe ought to thank us for putting a team with such ‘fans’ out of the competition.
Have a good end to your week, folks.
