Highbury, Wednesday 25th October 2000
UEFA Champions League, first stage, match 5
Preview
- Arsenal team news
See NewsReel items here and
here.
- Sparta_Prague team news
Basically, we've failed to find anything. The official Sparta website has an
enbglish version, but none of the news is translated.
Ian Eiloart has pointed us in the direction of Translation Expert which unlike
Babelfish has a Czech-to-English facility. But it doesn't seem to know
quite enough words to get anything useful out of it. Still, it's good
for a laugh at least. Apparently the squad includes
Peter Parrot at 18, Radek Elephant at 26, and one
Lavatory Flachbart at 18.
Tom Russell has sent in a more useful translation. Apparently:
"Svoboda is out, but Lengyel, Hornák and Tomás Jun are all fit again and travel to London. Normal goalkeeping service is also resumed with the return of Blazek."
- UK TV/Radio coverage
Live on ITV.
- See also
Result : Arsenal (3) 4 Sparta Prague (1) 2
Scorers: Parlour 5, Lauren 8, Labant 41pen,
Dixon 35, Kanu 52 Rosicky 90
Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Silvinho, Vivas, Luzhny; Parlour,
Viera, Lauren, Pires; Kanu, Henry
Subs: Cole (Silvinho h-t), Bergkamp (Pires 62),
Wiltord (Henry 78), Ljungberg, Upson,
Wreh, Lukic
Booked: Seaman, Parlour
Sparta: Postulka, Labant, Hasek, Hornak, J Novotny, Kincl,
Bolf, Sionko, Jarosik, Jun, Rosicky
Subs: Mynar (Jun h-t), Papousek (Sionko 85), Blazek,
Kolousek, Siegl, P Novotny, Prohaszka.
Att: 34497
Ref: Alain Hamer (Luxembourg)
A rather bizarre game all in all. Three right backs in defence, three
players scoring their first of the season, and Arsenal wearing strange
dark blue shirts which changed into yellow at half time. Add the
paradoxical fact that it was an easy win against opponents who had more
shots, more chances and more corners than us, and you could almost say
it was surreal.
The problem was it all seemed too easy at the start. After a minor alarm
when Dixon panicked and used the, err, lower portion of his shoulder to
control the ball in his own area, Arsenal were two up inside 8 minutes.
The first strange happening occurred after 5 minutes. Vieira passed
square to Parlour in space a few yards outside the area. Highbury sighed
resignedly as he wound up for a 25 yard yard shot. 34000 mouths stayed
open in astonishment as the ball flew into the top corner instead of row
Z of the clockend.
A couple of minutes later it was 2-0. Pires exchanged a quick one-two
with Henry and got away down the left, and his clever cut-back found
Lauren in space in the middle about 10 yards out. His left foot shot
wasn't completely cleanly hit but it had enough pace and direction to
beat the keeper's dive into the far corner.
Soon afterwards it should have been three. Henry intercepted a dire back
pass and rounded the keeper. It was a fairly acute angle, but you would
still have expected him to put it away more often than not, but this
time he put it into the side netting. There was another close call a few
minutes later when Lauren cleverly stabbed a pass through to Pires in
space on the right, and then continued his run into the box to take the
return pass. He tried to use the outside of his right foot to bend the
ball inside the far post, but missed by a few inches.
Meanwhile Sparta had almost scored at the other end. Parlour conceded a
free kick just outside the area, and there followed another unusual
event as Seaman brilliantly got a hand to the left-back Labant's curled
shot to turn it onto the bar. The North Bank held it's breath as a dark
shirt dashed in, seemingly to turn the loose ball over the line, but it
turned out to be a dark shirt of the right hue and Dixon hoofed the ball
clear.
Sparta then somehow missed 2 free headers from inside the 6yd box before
Arsenal went 3 up. Kanu escaped from the octopus-like clutches of his
marker for once, and went on one of his trademark runs before he was
tripped on the edge of the area. Henry stepped up and bent a shot round
the wall. The keeper had it covered but the ball bounced just in front
of him and he spilled it into the path of that noted goal mouth predator
Lee Dixon, and he lashed it onto the net from 3 yards.
Five minutes later Seaman did his bit to show solidarity with his
opposite number. Another free kick from just outside the area seemed to
be going straight into his midriff but he spilled it, and this time it
was a dark maroon shirt following up. I think Kincl actually made a
hash of his attempt to knock the ball home, but took advantage of
Seaman's obliging lunge and fell over to win a penalty. With Dixon
covering behind the ref decided it was only worth a yellow card, and
Labant sent Seaman the wrong way with the spot kick.
It had been difficult in the first half to instantaneously differentiate
between opposing players, so it was no surprise to see Arsenal come out
for the second wearing their normal yellow away strip. Another change
was Ashley Cole replacing Silvinho at left back. Perhaps after 45
minutes the defence was getting too used to each other.
Anyway, the 2nd half started the same way as the first. Little more than
5 minutes had elapsed when Arsenal restored their 3 goal lead. Henry
turned brilliantly about 40 yards out on the left and streaked towards
the goal line, his pace taking him beyond two covering defenders. The keeper
got a hand to his cut back into the middle but only succeeded in
diverting the ball to Kanu. With a couple of defenders covering the goal
he languidly sidestepped them both and knocked the ball home from the
edge of the 6yd box.
It all got even more testimonial like after that. Arsenal strolled
casually around, for the most part aside from a silly lunging foul from
Parlour which earned him a booking. Sparta kept plugging away and made
more and more chances. Seaman made another great save when one of the
Czech forwards was put through. He actually got round the keeper and
squeezed in a shot from a tight angle past Vivas who was in hot pursuit,
but Seaman had somehow recovered to get back and bundle the ball wide of
the post.
Meanwhile Bergkamp and Wiltord came on for Pires and a somewhat
reluctant Henry. A good break down the right involving Parlour and
Vieira sent Bergkamp clear, but from a tight angle his shot lacked power
and was straight at the keeper. Cole then dispossessed an opponent on
the halfway line and raced clear, but with everyone else standing back
and admiring, his whipped cross into the middle was too far in front of
Bergkamp, who'd finally cottoned on, at the far post.
At the other end Rosicky whipped a 20 yard free kick over the wall and
Seaman stood and watched as it grazed the near post and went into the
side netting. Arsenal also went close when Bergkamp chipped in a free
kick from the left which flicked off a defender's head, was just missed
by Kanu's head in the middle and then just eluded Dixon charging in at
the far post. Bergkamp then set up Wiltord for a clear run in on goal.
With only the keeper to beat he fired in an angled shot, which I think
the keeper did get the faintest of touches to, and the ball clipped the
outside of the far post.
In the final few minutes a cross in from the right found Kincl unmarked
in the middle but his header was weak and went straight at Seaman.
Sparta did finally get the goal their efforts deserved when Rosicky cut
in from the left, went round Dixon, Luzhny and Vivas before cutting a
shot back inside the near post from about 15 yards which gave Seaman
little chance. Probably the best goal of the night, and he earned a
round of applause from the Arsenal fans, magnanimous as ever in victory.
All in all a satisfactory and gratifying result, even if the performance
wasn't the most convincing. Under the circumstances entirely
understandable though.
Seaman 6.5 The good, the bad and the ponytail. A couple of
excellent saves, one dreadful blunder and a
couple of unconvincing flaps at crosses.
Dixon 6.5 Also a bit of Jekyll and Hyde about him. Good
following up for the goal, but still looking
somewhat nervous and unconfident on occasion.
Luzhny 7.0 Perhaps not surprising that Arsenal's defence
gave away a large number of chances, particularly
given their lack of height, but individually both
Luzhny and Vivas had pretty good games.
Vivas 7.0 See above.
Silvinho 6.0 Having been reported earlier in the week as
injured perhaps he wasn't fully fit, but had
a bit of a mare in the first half.
Cole 7.5 Looked a bit nervous early on but soon settled
and did very well apart from being caught out of
position on occasion.
Vieira 8.0 Calmly controlled midfield, a class apart.
Parlour 7.0 Great goal and worked as hard as ever.
Lauren 7.0 Also worked pretty hard, and some nice crisp
early passing. Showed more versatility by
switching to the left when Pires went off.
Pires 7.5 Another good game, going forward and defending.
Kanu 7.0 Found it hard to cope with the 'close' marking
at times, but some of the usual lovely touches
and runs and nice to see him score.
Henry 7.0 Looked a little frustrated at times, but still
running his heart out.
Bergkamp 7.0 A little out of position on the right wing,
but one or two clever touches.
Wiltord 7.0 Looked as eager as ever, ran about a lot,
etc, etc.
Derek
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