PAOK Thessaloniki vs Arsenal. 16/09/97

Toumba Stadium (the tomb), Thessaloniki, Tuesday 16th September 1997

UEFA Cup first round first leg

Arsenal:
               Seaman
     Dixon  Adams Bould Winterburn
Parlour (Platt) Petit Vieira Overmars (Boa Morte)
          Wright Anelka (Wreh)

Scorer:  Fratzeskos

Half-time report

Score: PAOK 0 - 0 Arsenal

PAOK have had a good few more attacks than us, but most of the time they're hitting long high balls forward and our defence are coping fine, Adams and Bould in particular. They're main threat seems to be, as we were warned, the free-kick specialist Fratzeskos. His first effort, on 17mins, was from miles out and went well high, but after about 30 he had another one, a bit closer in and to the right, which Seaman did brilliantly to push onto the post. Between these Fratzeskos hit a corner which would have gone in if Seaman hadn't been alert enough to tip it over. Defensively we're doing well, but we're giving the ball away a bit easily further up the pitch, Vieira Wright and, in particular, Anelka being the guilty parties.

Arsenal got off to a good start. Within 4 mins Vieira won a dodgy free-kick right on the edge of their area. Wright left it for Petit but his shot was easy for the keeper to save (although he made a meal of it). Later Petit left one for Wright but his shot was high.

We were pressing PAOK well when they're in possession, except for a spell they dominated in the middle of the half. We don't seem to be breaking quickly enough to cause them many problems, but if that's the price of a clean sheet...

Petit's been going in very strong and needs to be careful, but it's Wright who's been booked, apparently for dissent after the ref blew for Petit's 4th or 5th foul.

Wright had an overhead attempt from an Anelka header after some lovely Arsenal play which took the ball from right wing to left and back again. But he was off target. Arsenal came right back into it towards the end of the half. A lovely through ball by Vieira brought their keepr out to challenge Wright right on the dge of their penalty area. The keeper failed to gather it but managed to stretch out a foot to take the ball, which had rolled out of the area, off of Anelka's foot.

Overmars has been doing alright, and right at the end of the half he skinned his full-back and put over a good cross which the keeper just managed to get a hand on, and a defender at the far post cleared it just in front of Anelka. But Platt's been warming up for the last 6 minutes so perhaps we'll see him brought on for Overmars (who was doubtful for this match anyway) to help us take control of midfield.

Second Half

A much less impressive half from Arsenal. Again it got off to a good start, though. A PAOK free-kick in our half was cleared, and Parlour brought it forward before putting Wright away on the left wing. With only Anelka up wiht him he did alright to win a free-kick out wide. The free-kick was floated in and headed out again where Overmars met it with a shot that just clipped the outside of the post. A little later some great work by Overmars saw him in sight of goal but he chose to square it to Wright who was under moe pressure. However he did get a shot in and from that position right in front of goal it was disppointing to see him miss the target.

7 minutes in Dixon gave the ball away badly, when the position was safe, and created a very dangerous situation. They had 3 men on the egd eof our area and found the one who was in the clear. He looked offside but it wasn't given, and totally unchallenged he could only shoot over from the left hand side of the area.

Another defensive mix-up shortly after, involving Dixon and Petit, was only rescued by a sliding tackle from Adams. We were getting forward at times, and often seemd to be looking for corners despite the fact that (as warned) their goalie was superb at coming otu to gather them.

On 60 Fratzeskos was put clear on Seama, PAOK breaking away down the left after we'd given it away again. SEaman did well to stay big, and FRatzeskos put the shot too close to him. I was starting to think that this Fratzeskos guy wasn't too hot when the ball's moving. Less than a minute later he'd put PAOK ahead.

Again Dixon gave the ball away, and a diagonal ball into our penalty area fell to Fratzeskos in the box. Our guys had stepped up for offside but the replay clearly showed it was a perfectly timed run. From that distance and in that much space he could hardly miss, despite the fact that the ball was in motion.

Just after this, a good Petit shot from distance forced the keeper to push it out, but a defender beat Wrighty to the loose ball.

On about 70, PLatt and Boa Morte came on for Overmars and Parlour (who ]was looking a bit jaded). Boa Morte tried hard but fouled a lot as a result.He had one excellent run, ended by a foul just outside their area. Wrighty#s shot curled low towards the left hand corner but the keeper got down well to tip it onto the post and out.

On 80, Chritoph Wreh came on for Anelka. Shortly after we were lucky to get an offside decision that looked clearly wrong on the replay, their striker would have been in acres of space with only Seaman to beat. On 86 a PAOK man made a dangerous run into our box. With several of our players chasing him ineffectively it was Platt who made the crucial tackle. But the PAOK player was already on his way to the floor, and this time the ref brought out the yellow card for the dive.

At the death, Vieira earned himself a stupid booking, clipping a lone PAOK striker from behind when he was on his own in our half and surrounded by red shirts.

All in all, pretty good defensively apart from the mistakes catalogued above. Where we were lacking was up front. We had loads of pace in Wright Anelka Overmars and (later) Boa Morte, but we didn't use it. Petit and Vieira didn't get forward as much as they might (especially in the absence of Bergkamp. I felt we perhaps suffered from not having someone playing in Bergkamp's position. Anelka plays further forward, doesn't come back to get the ball in the way that Dennis does, so there was more onus on the midfield to create, and they didn't much.

The ref was a bit quick to pull out the yellow card (Adams picked one up in addition to those mentioned above) but otherwise had a very good game and was neither intimidated by the crowd nor fooled by their players' dives.

Leicester are 1-0 up in Madrid.

report by Rupe.

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