Highbury, Tuesday March 6th 2001
UEFA Champs League second stage, match 5
scorer: Henry 82
Arsenal:
Seaman
Dixon Adams Grimandi Cole
Pires (Wiltord 70) Vieira Lauren Ljungberg
Henry (Vivas 90) Bergkamp (Kanu 70)
A good result on a bad night: Lyon's win against BM means that we will
probably need to win in Germany (tho' the only permutation that matters is
if Lyon win in Moscow and we fail to win.)
We outplayed Spartak, but they appeared to have come for a draw in the
hope, I assume, that Munich would win both remaining matches and they can
beat Lyon. As a result Spartak are out. That could cost us, but the
money for a win might prove incentive enough!
The first half was frustrating, Pires on the right and Ljunberg both
worked hard and created several chances. Vieira had 3 good chances to
score from set plays; Bergkamp, tho sometimes playing too deep, had a
blinder with superb distribution and some remarkably close
efforts. Lauren and Vieira did a good job of protecting the back 4, who
mostly played very well.
Lee Dixon had an accident prone first half. On one occasion GG needed to
tidy up an attempted clearance inside the area, and I was worried that Lee
was trying to get himself booked.
The biggest downside was Henry. This was one of his worst games in red
and white. He was offside, fluffing relatively easy chances, not getting
forward, always seemed to get the ball with his back to goal and seemed
unwilling to shoot -- laying off whenever possible instead.
So when AW took of DB and Pires, both of whom had been creating and
playing well, and bought on Kanu and Wiltord it wasn't the most popular
move he's evere made. Bergkamp was praised from the stands. What that
did for poor Kanu and Wiltord's confidence, I don't know.
The substituion seemed to turn the team flat. Despite bringing on an
extra attacker wee missed Bergkamps creativity and spark.
Fortunately the half time cup of tea had made a huge difference on Lee,
and the rest of the defensive unit was still playing well. There were
mistakes, and the there was a bit of a scare with about 10 minutes to
go. Tony missed a tackle, and both Ashley and Dave did very well: the
former spread himself to narrow angles and the latter holding a bouncing
shot. The post match stats said they only managed one shot on target, but
I am certain I remember 3 (relatively easy) saves made by Seaman.
Up front TH was still looking poor, and we had failed to convert 16
corners. Some were very good, and we were making chances, but we
couldn't use them. So optimisim wasn't high for the 17th, and the person
least likely to score proved Wenger right: SW forced the corner, it was
delivered in (by Cole I guess, but I don't remember) and Henry headed the
ball down into the ground, it looped up and over the defender on the
line into the net. A good header, and a goal. 1-0.
That was the cue for 10 minutes (including injury time) of sometimes
frantic defence. Lee Dixon and Wiltord did well to waster 2 or 3 minutes
on the right touchline, the three forwards linked up to provide release
from the pressure, and I think we probably looked more like scoring a
second than they did of equalising, but it wasn't fun.
TA was magnificent throughout, and when he made his second mistake Lee was
tehre to hack the ball clear to Wiltord. That made up for the first
half. Adams makes such a difference to us.
I'd like to comment on Cole too -- he played well and going forward he is
a real threat. Every game he seems to get better. But. There is a but I'm
afraid, his positional play can be woeful at times. It's not unsual for
us to have a back 3 and Ashley to be somewhere in the opponents half.
When it finally mattered he got back, but we relied on Lauren, PV and
Freddie to cover for him quite a bit.
Ratings
DS - 7 - Very little to do, Did it.
LD - 7 - (Well a 6 and a 8 really)
GG - 8 - Did well. Always looked solid and up to the job. Didn't give
away too many stupid free kicks
TA - 8 - Inspiring again. Solid.
AC - 8 - If only we could get him to study videos of Nigel's positional
play...
L - 7 - Good tackling and some nice runs. More anonymous than the other
midfielders.
PV - 9 - Excellent.
RP - 8 - I think he does better on the right. He tackled well, amde
chances and put in some good corners.
FL - 8 - Worked hard, and again made chances
DB - 9 - A very good game. Played too deep sometimes, but showed what we
miss in away games.
TH - 5 - Would be lower but for the goal.
SW - 7 - Didn't really get going, but had some joy on the right. Played
intelligently in closing minutes.
K - 7 - He worked hard when he came on, but I wish he'd do dull things in
injury time when 1 goal up...
NV - - Did he touch the ball?
Finally the ref: I just realised I've written a report without mentioning
the referee. He fell for a few dives, missed a couple of handballs, the
linesmen made some mistakes, and denied FL what might have been a penalty
(I was at the wrong end of the ground to see). Booked nobody. Yes,
nobody.
Best ref we've seen in ages...
report by Mike Pitt
On Monday I was offered a ticket to go and sit in the Spartak end for the
game last night - an opportunity I could not pass by. I have always wanted
to see once a game at THOF from the point of view of the away supporters -
and to check out the facilities.
I must say I was very impressed by the Spartak supporters - whilst they
considered their chances of qualifying had realistically gone, they were
determined to support their team to the max, and grew more and more
confident as the game wore on (and I grew more and more nervous).
It was clear to the Spartak supporters around me that I was an infiltrator
on their patch, yet they could not have been more hospitable - even offering
me shots of, I assume, vodka. I had to decline these, not only because I've
given up the booze for Lent, but because I'd already seen the fuzz drag
Spartak supporters away from their seats for having a bottle.
When Henry rose high to score, I too leapt very high, and suddenly thoughts
of my safety came to mind. The fans in front of me turned around to shake my
hand and congratulate me, as did those behind me!!! Well, that was a turn up
for the books - not something I could ever have expected at a football
match.
All in all a new view of the pitch for me, and an excellent evening all
round, followed by a long drive home to Somerset, arriving just in time to
watch the game all over again on the box!
report by Christopher Kenmore
Preview
- Lyon vs Bayern
Arsenal could really do with a Bayern win today. If Lyon
win then they're still very much in the reckoning, even if
we thrash Spartak.
Lyon team news: They'll be missing 3 players through
suspension following bookings in the Arsenal game. Muller is one,
the others are the extremely influential midfielder Marc Vivien-Foe,
and the impressive striker Marlet. Another one who'll be sorely missed
is Edmilson, who like Silvinho has been called up to the Brasil
squad for friendlies that week.
See also this NewsReel piece
Bayern team news:
Midfielder Ciriaco Sforza will be missing until after the
Arsenal game at the end of this stage of the competition, having
undergone knee surgery. He'll be out for about 6 weeks so will probably
miss both legs of the quarter-final too.
- Arsenal team news
See newsreel stories here
and here for Arsenal
and Spartak team news.
- Spartak_Moscow team news
- UK TV/Radio coverage
Live on OnDigital only. Highlights later on ITV (check local listings)
- non-UK TV coverage
- Asia: live on ESPN. eg in India match starts at 1:15.
other countries too - check local listings
(thanks to poochi for the info)
- Finland: channel 4, delayed at 11:15
(thanks to Janne for the info)
- Spain: live on Canal+
(thanks to Ian for the info)
- Iceland: live on SYN, starts 19:45.
(thanks to Sæbjörn for the info)
- Netherlands: (live?) on NOS2.
(thanks to Franklin for the info)
- Ireland: live on TV3.
(thanks to Kevin Fergus & Ken for the info)
- Sweden/Norway: live on Viasat. starts 20:30 CET
(thanks to Morgan for the info)
- Denmark: TV3+ is showing 55 minutes of the game (not sure
if this mean highlights or a solid block, well you never know!)
starting at 22:45 local time
(thanks to Albaek for the info)
- US: nope, ESPN's showing you the meaningless Leeds-Real match.
- For details, and countries not listed above, see the
non-UK TV FAQ
- See also
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