Wednesday, February 25, 2009

THe Gunners scrape past Roma in 1st leg


After 3 months we return to Champions league football!!! Arsenal were facing off against Roma at the Emirates. Both teams were not in the best of form in their respective leagues, but had much better form in Europe. Arsenal were missing Adebayor and Eduardo thru injury. But Roma striker Totti was back in business for the roman club.


The match started brightly, with both teams passing the ball around. After 10 min though Arsenal turned dominant and started hogging possession. They turned the ball around, and pssed like crazy, popping the ball from side to side, but Roma kept on clearing the ball. It was just another day for Arsenal, the same old story, all chances but no conversion into goals. But Persie avoided that by being brought down in the penalty box. A nasri pass to the Dutch centre forward made the Roma defence nervous, and French centre back Mexes brought him down. Persie converted the spot kick with a right corner finish to give the Gunners the much needed boost.


After the interval, Roma replied strongly with a few outspoken runs, but soon withered away, as Arsenal's rock solid defence and super goalkeeper rendered them useless. Arsenal had a glorious chance when a Nasri pass found an unmarked Bendtner in the box, but the Danish striker blazed his shot above the goal. Eboue too had his opportunity with a defensive error, but the Ivorian, who has scored only once in 5 yrs at arsenal, found the wrong side of the net. But Riise brought the romans back to life when he found the post, but Arsenal held on to win at last 1-0.


Meanwhile, champs ManUtd failed to take any advantage at the San Siro, as Ronaldo squandered 5 freekicks in front of goal. But Mourinho;s side too missed several opportunities as that match ended in a 0-0 draw.


Barca came back from behind to score a crucial away goal, after recovering from a Juninho free kick, as Henry equalised at the end of the mathc. Lyon and Barca settled for a 1-1 draw.


Porto scored 2 away goals as Athletico Madrid was helpless, but rallied to hold on 2-2.


With Arsenal only winning their match, it will be interesting tp see the second leg on march 10!!!

2 comments:

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