Highbury, Tuesday October 16th
UEFA Champions League, stage 1 match 4
scorers: Henry 22, 52 Olisadebe 50
Arsenal:
Wright
Lauren Campbell Upson Cole
Ljungberg Vieira van Bronckhorst Pires (Parlour)
Wiltord (Bergkamp) Henry (Grimandi 90)
A thrilling if nervy win over a very good if
somewhat theatrical Panathinaikos side puts
Arsenal right back in the race for qualification
to the second phase.
A win against Real Mallorca next week will give us
a real chance of pipping them for second place
(and that's assuming Panathinaikos pick up some
more points).
I've sene no suggestion that Martin Keown is injured,
so can only assume that Arsene Wenger took the brave decision
to leave him out for Matthew Upson. Interesting that Le
Boss went for all the youngsters rather than Boom Boom's
experience. Sol and Upson didn't let us down. Well, not much.
Arsenal started brightly and attacked for the first 5 minutes.
Then the Greek side started getting forward and a striker
beat the offside trap only for Campbell to get back well and
d o enough for the shot to fly over the bar. Moments later
another good break saw them cross to the near post but Upson
got in well to block.
From the start the Geeks were rolling around in agony at every
opportunity. If anything it was worse than last time. Paolo
Sousa was stretchered off on 12 minutes after some typical
histrionics, then came straight back on. Moments later he was
booked for a no-particularly-bad barge on Freddie. Seemed
like the ref had noticed he'd been fooled. He was right anyway,
Sousa deserved it, falling over every time Vieira came near.
Vieira had given the ball away softly a few times just when
we looked about the threaten. And I was just writing this in my
notes when he stormed over to the left wing where there was a bit
of a scramble going on, and came away with the ball in his
inimitable and imperious style.
Shortly after, Panathinaikos were in possession on their left
wing, and the ball was played square towards Sousa in the penalty
area. Vieir amade up loads of ground runnign upfield to slide
in on his arse, make a crunching tackle, and stand up with ball.
A quick look up and he threaded a pass forward for Henry to
run onto. Theirry took his time, controlling the ball forward
and with the keeper coming out and a defender catching up on
his left. And as he came into the penalty area on the right
he lifted the ball past the goalie.
Henry's celebration was a bit cheeky, walking calmly over
to stand stock still in front of the visiting fans. No excuse
for the object one of them threw at him, though.
5 minutes later Upson made an error, going in for a tackle on
Olisadebe as he broke clear into the box. Matty was well behind the
striker and perhaps should have left it to Wright to save the day.
Or maybe he knew.....
Basinas stepped up to take the spot kick and hit it low to
Richard Wright's right. The keeper guessed right with his
dive and pushed it out.
Sousa's antics paid off as he fell over underneath Vieira and
got Paddy booked.
On 36 minutes Ashley Cole did brilliantly to win a free kick
down near the left hand corner. A defender was tracking
an Arsenal through ball towards his own goal-line and
Cole raced past him to nip in front. It wasn't a particularly
dangerous situation as Ashley looked unlikely to be able to
do much with the ball moving fast away from him, but the
defender was startled into barging him over,
The free kick hit a Panathinaikos head and soared up into
the air, when it came down Wiltord headed forward and it
came back off a Greek back toi Campbell on the edge of the box.
He hit a firm low first-time shot but was unlucky to see it
graze the outside of the left hand post.
Wright did well again towards the end of the half, coming out
sharply to get to a ball over the top ahead of Karagounis.
Panathinaikos were level 5 minutes into the second half.
Campbell didn't manage to get a full head on a cross from
our left, and only glanced it to the far side and Olisadebe.
He cut back and then forward again, Lauren letting him get
goalside. Campbell came over to the post to cover but when
Olisadebe clipped a cross in (maybe a shot? hard to say) it
got a little deflection off Sol which took it inside the near
post from a ridiculous angle, giving Wright no chance.
Nightmare, but a minute later we'd reversed it. Wiltord got
barged over from behind coming into the box onto a Pires pass.
Henry made no mistake from the spot, placing it low inside
the right hand post while sending the keeper the wrong way.
Lauren went in the book for assisting Basinas in his gymnastics.
Basinas got a 5.9.
On 55 minutes the main threat all through, Olisadebe, was very
unlucky not to score. After a quick and clever move on their part
it came to him and he made space for himself brilliantly near
the right hand corner of our penalty area. He drove it high
towards the far top corner and Wright was well beaten (anyone
would have been), but it clipped the outside of the angle.
5 minutes later Olisadebe again was the target for a good
pass forward, but Wright did well to race out and tackle him right on the
edge of the box.
Ljungberg won a free-kick near the left hand corner, and when
it came over Campbell got a free header at the far post which
flew a yard over the top of the left hand post.
Noticeably, the ref was starting to wave play on more and more
of the times the away team went for their rolling about thing.
No cards for diving though.
We went to pieces at the back briefly halfway through the half.
Olisadebe got clear down the left and probably should have shot.
A few of them had chances as the ball was then played around the
edge our box, but to be fair the defence rallied well and,
one after the other, kept them from getting a clear shot.
Eventually it was cleared, to great relief.
With 20 minutes to go Parlour and Bergkamp came on for Pires and
Wiltord. Pires didn't have a bad game on the left wing, but
was nowhere near as influential as he has been in the middle.
Wiltord had not had a good game though, with his loose passes
so often ending our attacks. After the substitution Freddie switched
to the left. If we were having to attack one might have expected
Gio to go left and Parlour in the middle, but (quite rightly)
Wenger obviously thought Lauren needed more defensive support
against Olisadebe.
Cole got booked for what looked a fair tackle to me, but he
did slide in fron a long distance so it wasn't an altogether
surprising decision. Especially given the number of rolls
Karagounis did.
They put a cross in from our left with 15 minutes to go. It was
headed goalwards from beyond the far post but went out off Upson's
back. Goal kick. Great decision.
We took a free kick on the left wing which has to be a rival
to the Bergkamp-vanBronckhorst effort from a couple of weeks ago,
for title of crappest free-kick of the season. Freddie p took it
quick, touching the ball to Henry who was standing next to him.
Henry rolled it forward a couple of yards to Freddie, who rolled
it back to him. The pass nutmegged Henry, who fell over as it
went through his legs and out for a Panathinaikos throw. There's
obviously a place for quick free-kicks. But when we're not
ready...?!
Towards the end Vieira made a massive tackle on the edge of the box
on the right. As injury time started, Henry was brought off for
Grimandi. Then Cole got injured. It happened as he stretched
to head a cross-field ball clear. He only got a slight contact
on it, and landed in a heap. He was stretched off and
came on limping a few minutes later, so I can only suppose
he landed awkwardly. Let's hope he's ok - he limped through the
remaining minute or 2 and was receiving further treatment
immediately after the final whistle.
report by Rupe.
Preview
- Arsenal team news
Adams and Dixon are definitely out. Jeffers is at least doubtful.
It'll be interesting to see which centrebacks play. Upson Campbell and
Keown are all available. Upson's form is arguably the best of the
3, but he's probably bottom of the pecking order.
It seems likely that Richard right will get his home debut,
with Seaman still troubled by his shoulder. All the more reason
to play Keown, I suspect, in order to add some experience to the
back line. So will Upson's reward be to be dropped in favour
of the not-quite-settled Sol? Not so good for Upson, but maybe
this will the game when Campbell truly arrives at Arsenal.
Time to nod one of those far-post chances in!
Up front, I continue to think that against a team likely to defend in strenght
rather than push out leaving space behind them, Wiltord and Henry is
not the best option. Bergkamp has recovered from an ankle injury and
looked sharp when he came on for the last 10 minutes against
Southampton. But Jeffers is said to be still out with his ankle problem.
- Panathinaikos team news
Following an injury, striker Nikos Liberopoulos is available for the first time
since the qualifying rounds.
Greek international defender Yannis Goumas is out injured,
Giorgios Seitaridis faces a late fitness test.
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