Oh well, we didn’t win the Champions League. But I’m more than proud of the team. In a bit of bad luck, Arsenal were down to 10 men after just 18 minutes after our goalkeeper, Jens Lehman, took down a player outside the box. No complaints, it was a sending off. Although in that move, Barcelona did put the ball in the net, and we wondered whether the referee would have given that instead and kept our keeper on. On the other hand he could have played on and still have sent our keeper off…
But it wasn’t all downbeat. Sol Campbell managed to get onto the end of a Thierry Henry free kick and headed in from 6 yards. A surprise lead. And Arsenal dug in, holding off Barcelona, Almunia, our replacement keeper making a number of fantastic saves. But in a period of 4 minutes, Arsenal’s hearts were broken. On 76 minutes, Eto’o broke round the left wing and promptly put the ball in the near post past Almunia. On 80, some genius from Hendrik Larsson in his last game for Barcelona created their second goal, a blind pass finding Belletti, and Arsenal’s dreams were ended.
Barcelona were lucky in many ways, but I’m proud of Arsenal for the way they played. If there was ever an example of resilience, Arsenal’s performance is one of for the history books.
Well done, Arsenal for a gutsy performance. Let’s see what we can do next year. Thierry, let’s have another go, shall we?
Links:
Match report (BBC SPORT)
Update – Friday, May 19, 2006 @ 15:49:52 PM
Thierry decided today to stay with Arsenal until 2010. (Link from BBC SPORT)