Arsenal qualified for the “Round of 16″ after a 3-1 victory over Partizan today. It was a shaky game at the beginning, but the Gunners made it through to the next round courtesy of goals from Captain RVP, Theo Walcott, and Samir Nasri.
The match started a bit slow for the Gunners, with the prime objective of the team to let everybody have the ball. The clear tactic put out by AW was to pressurize from the beginning, and hold possession, do we even know any other tactic??
Upto the 10th min, there were no real chances. Only the occasional increase in tempo when we went up. Partizan were not playing badly either, they were closing us down, and making were it main it really difficult to break them down. The first half chance came in the 12th min, when Chamakh mistimed his header from a Sagna cross.
We reach the 20th min, and yet we did not find our rhythm, no chances, just scrappy playing by us. Stojkovic should have set up camp at his goal ! In the 23rd min, Gibbs was taken off for Eboue for the former had picked up a really strange injury.
In the 28th min, the first real attack got us the first real goal-scoring chance. RVP earned his penalty, and didn’t the dutch-man take it well. His first goal for the season, congratulations Robin !…1 nil to the Arsenal.
From that time on, the tension at the Emirates was brought down to a more normal level. Passes were flowing better, and sparks of smoothness were starting to show up. For instance, Eboue showed some CR7 trickiness for a change in gameplay !
In the 43rd min RVP capitalised on a Partizan mistake, but the dutch-man pass was to hard for MC29 to collect and the chance for a 2nd went begging.
In total the first half was ugly, nothing to show and nothing to be very proud of. The RVP-Chamakh combination was not working. When the second-half started the first chance came in the 46th min. Some half-time team talk Boss? Denilson played a defense splitting pass to set Chamakh free on goal but the Moroccan couldn’t control the ball thus rendering the chance useless…
In the 51st min, the tension at the Emirates came back in a matter of seconds. Squillaci’s shyness really cost the team as Cleo’s deflected shot landed in Luke’s net..Arsenal FC 1-1 FK Partizan.
In the 59th min Sagna’s cross was too much for Chamakh to reach. Quite frankly the situation at the Emirates was not a happy one. Mispasses, misreading and whatever mis-? you can add, Partizan were literally screwing us. In the 69th min Theo earned us a free kick just outside the box, but Stojkovic did brilliantly to save.1 min later Song shot wide.
In the 72nd min, Theo made it 2. Partizan failure to clear a cross, landed straight to Theo, who’s half-volley was just immaculate! 4 mins later qualification was confirmed when Some quick feet from Song found Nasri unmarked in the middle of the box….3-1 to the Arsenal.
Sagna did get sent off in the 86th min, but the game was already won by then….. 3 points to Arsenal. Its Madrid, Barca, Schalke or Bayern for us….hopefully our performance will be better against them.
Watch the goals here
MATCH RATINGS:
LUKE : Nothing much to so in the first half. Helpless for the goal, but a nice save by him from the free kick resulting from BS3′s red card….6.5
GIBBS: N/A
EBOUE: Nice trickery from him, something new from him for a change. His side was not attacked too much in the first-half, and whatever did come, he did manage it well. Not bad for a RB….6
KOSHER: Today Kosher was well, hmmm, how should I put this…Different. The french-man defended well overall, occasionally filling in for the LB hole when Eboue went up, but I did see him sometimes push up a lot (in open-play), and that’s something you don’t really expect in a CB do you….6
SQ18: No nonsense by him, he just did his job in the first half. Completely at fault for the first goal in the second half, when for who knows what reason he backed away from Cleo. If he does not improve and start being more consistent, I think I’d like to see Djourou replace him…2.5
SAGNA: Routine from the right back, going up and coming back. His red-card, was the only bad segment of his game today, and this may come back to bite us badly in the ***. Other than that he was responsible, and professional…5
DENILSON: His hair-cut looks good, that is if you don’t like hair. Overall the brazilian played well, although he should be a bit more creative…..4.5
SONG: Well I did write about the rotating midfielder formation and its pros. Our goal came because of this guys pass to RVP and whatever followed, but Song played well today. He went up, and at the same time came back. He did everything today, and was the major reason we scored the first and third goals. 2 assists, well done mate…..10
NASRI: One wrong decision made by the French-man today when he played RVP instead of MC29 or AA23, but other than that Nasri played well. He did score the 3rd goal, but should improve his crossing. I have no idea why AW doesn’t play him in the centre….8
AA: Today the Russian was ‘sad’, and I wont say anything more..2
RVP: The dutch-man’s penalty was unsavable and overall to play as a CAM come supporting striker, the guy really did well. For me he should start at OT instead of MC29….8
MC29: Not much from him today, taken off for Nikko in the 75th min..4
THEO: He did make a difference when he came on, and what a 2nd goal. Should be more consistent though…..6
NIKKO: Apart from some good-sense to play in Song, the guy did not contribute much, can’t really blame him can I? However he should have some sense as he made some really bad decisions tonight….5.
Cheers,
