Arsenal vs PAOK Thessaloniki. 30/09/97

Arsenal (1) 1 - 1 (0)

Aggregate score: 1 - 2 Loss

Highbury, Tuesday 30th September 1997

UEFA Cup, 1st round 2nd leg.

Report

Scorers:   Bergkamp 22       Vrizas 86

Arsenal:
          Seaman
     Dixon Adams Bould Winterburn
Parlour  Vieira Petit Overmars (Platt)
     Wright Bergkamp

Seaman Euro-nightmare part II

Arsenal went out tonight to a soft late goal after having dominated the match but failing to establish a lead. Bergkamp scored a lovely goal after 22 minutes to make the tie level at one each, but PAOK defended well, and their goalie who looked decidely dodgy early on pulled off some good saves to keep them in it.

Our goal came after Adams won the ball just inside our half and fed it to Bergkamp in front of him on the right hand side of the pitch. Bergkamp took it forward then pulled inside along the edge of the area, leaving his marker for dead before curling a shot beyond the keeper and just inside the far post.

We had plenty more chances in the first half, excellent saves being forced by shots from outside the area by Parlour and Petit (deflected). Bergkamp came close a couple of times, one that was similar to the goal and another low shot to the near corner after Petit had pulled a corner from the right back to Dennis outide the area. The latter was bundled off the line by a combination of keeper and defender. There were some likely looking goalmouth scrambles too. But too many times our players wanted too long on the ball and tried to control and look for a killer pass when perhaps a blast at goal was in order. Vieira continues to be particularly guilty of this. He fails to shoot when in a prime position, then blasts one hopefully from miles out that goes well wide. Adams had a chance inside the area after the keepr had fluffed it, but the ball took long enough to come down to Adams that the goelie was able to recover and put him off enough so that the close range shot was skied.

PAOK had very few chances but while they didn't look frightening they were clearly capable of hitting us on the break which kept things very tense as extra time loomed. Their free-kicks were wasted, except for one which seemed to hit a raised Arsenal hand above the wall and which could easily have won them a penalty in the firts half.

The second half continued with Arsenal dominating, but if anything we looked less likely to score than in the first half. Their keeper made more saves, including one from a Dixon drive from the right, and another from a Wright shot from the left. But mostly we were hitting them from far out and didn't trouble their goal too much. Platt came on for Overmars with 15 or so left and we did lookk more purposeful from that point, but as things contiunued and it looked like extra time we started pushing forward more and leaving them more opportunities to build up attacks. They kept wasting those opportunities.

Then, 4 minutes from the end, Seaman hit a terible clearance which went straight to a PAOK player. Vrizas brought it forward and as he approached the area Adams and Bould backed off and let him get a clear shot from just inside the area to make it level on the night and leave Arsenal needing 2 goals in about as many minutes.

Very disappointing to go out, but PAOK were better than us over the two legs, in the same way that Arsenal were better when we frustrated more talented sides in Europe in the past. The travelling PAOK fans were superb throughout, and perhaps deserve this more than their team do.

Many of our players seemed guilty of trying to over-elaborate, and keeping hold of the ball too long.

Rupe.

UEFA Cup, first round, 2nd leg
Arsenal vs PAOK Salonika                                 Tue Sep 30 1997

Result : Arsenal               (1) 1   PAOK Salonika           (0) 1

Scorers: Bergkamp 22                   Vrizas 86

Arsenal: Seaman, Dixon, Bould, Adams, Winterburn, Petit, Vieira, 
         Parlour, Overmars, Bergkamp, Wright
         Subs: Platt (Overmars 74), Anelka (Parlour 86)
               Garde, Marshall, Boa Morte, Hughes, Manninger
         Booked: Dixon, Adams

PAOK: Mickopoulos, Olivares, Tasiopoulos, Kolobourdas, Zafiriou, Zagorakis, 
      Fratzeskos, Vrizas, Toursounidis, Nagbe, Velis 
      Subs: Sidiropoulos (Zagorakis 33), Kapetanopoulos (Kolobourdas 81), 
            Zoumpouris (Fratzeskos 90), Cominges, Katsouris, Argiriou, Kases
      Booked: Tasiopoulos, Sidiropoulos

Att: 37982
Ref: M Piraux (Belgium)

Disappointment again in the 1st round of the UEFA cup as Arsenal avoided a sixth successive defeat in Europe but still lost the tie on aggregate to a late equaliser on the night. The Gunners dominated the game but couldn't quite find the finish for the goals needed to overturn the tie.

Overall I don't think it was that bad a performance, though Arsenal did run out of steam and ideas somewhat in the 2nd half. The Greeks have to take a lot of credit for some superb defending, particularly their goalkeeper who made at least 4 great saves. The one from the deflected Petit shot in the 1st half was quite outstanding. There was nothing he could do about another quite brilliant Bergkamp goal. The maestro ghosted past a couple of challenges on the edge of the area before stroking a left foot shot beyond the reach of the keeper into the far corner.

One turning point was midway through the 2nd half when Tasiopoulos should have been sent off. He had previously been booked when he miscontrolled a pass in his own half and Wrighty nipped in to take the ball off him and was clear through on goal when the defender resorted to a rugby tackle to stop him. Probably worth a red card for denying a goal-scoring opportunity, but the ref didn't even produce a second yellow. A few minutes later Adams was also a bit lucky to stay on the field when he blundered to present an opponent with a chance and then brought him down by falling into him. But that was later, and had Tasiopoulos earlier been sent off, I doubt Salonika would ever have got into a position to induce such a mistake out of Adams.

Seaman     5.5  Harsh maybe to blame him, but it was his mishit goal 
                kick which gave away possession in a dangerous area, and 
                he also seemed a little slow reacting to what wasn't a 
                particularly well hit shot.

Dixon      6.5  Not really at his best.

Winterburn 7.5  Typically whole-hearted display.
            
Adams      6.0  Two untypical blunders presented Salonika with their 
                best chances, though to be fair otherwise he played 
                quite well, apart from the goal.

Bould      6.5  Fairly solid again, though he dived in rashly for their 
                goal.

Petit      7.5  Probably the pick of the midfield and defence.

Vieira     7.0  Looking more like himself though he again looked a bit
                tired and jaded at times.

Parlour    7.0  Also had a reasonably game though late in the 2nd half
                he too looked particularly tired.

Overmars   6.0  Really failed to make any impression.

Bergkamp   8.0  Another superb game, another brilliant goal.

Wright     6.5  Another subdued game.

Derek

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