Arsenal (1) 3 - 1 (0) AIK SolnaWembley, Wednesday 22nd September 1999UEFA Champions League, first group stage, match 2See below for reports by Rupe, PaulPreview
Arsenal (1) 3 - 1 (0) AIK SolnaWembley, Wednesday 22nd September 1999UEFA Champions League, first group stage, match 2
scorers: Ljungberg 28 Nordin 52
Henry 90
Suker 91
Arsenal:
Manninger
Dixon Adams Keown Winterburn
Ljungberg (Henry) Vieira Grimandi (Silvinho) Overmars (Kanu)
Bergkamp Suker
This was a good Arsenal performance full of skilful touches but once
again looking like we were going to pay for our failure to finish.
Then, just as it looked like Wembley was once again going to be a
venue of disappointment, our new boys Henry and Suker popped up with
2 late great goals to make this easily the best European night of
Wenger's reign.
A long ball forward from Grimandi was picked up by Overmars in the left corner. He pulled Kaamark inside-out, bringing him back infield before turning and getting to the goal-line. The cross was excellent and with a free header Suker should have done better than place it a few yards wide. Bergkamp had the next good chance. He rode a tackle in the middle of the park, with his back to goal, turned and brought it forward where he played a superb one-two with Suker on the edge of the area (a little fortunate perhaps in that Suker's return took a slight deflection). Dennis, put clear in the box, let it get a bit close to the onrushing keeper who blocked the shot. Winterburn slipped a delightful pass inside the defender for Overmars to run onto from the left wing, and another good cross forced a corner as a defender intercepted to head over his own goal. Nige took the corner, from our right, and Keown's header at the near post was deflected off a defender straight into the hands of the keeper. A powerful Vieira run was ended by a foul just outside the area. Overmars rolled the ball to Bergkamp who drove low past the wall - the keeper again did well to drop to his right and save. On 28 minutes our dominance got its just rewards. An AIK attack was broken down in our half (by Grimadni I think) and Vieira brought the ball out up the right. Half-way into AIK's half of the pitch, he rode a tackle and passed inside to Bergkamp. Suker, ahead of Dennis on the edge of the area, moved to the right pulling his marker that way, leaving space for Ljungberg to run into from midfield. Dennis saw the opportunity and slipped the ball forward into Freddie's path. He took it on and finished brilliantly with the outsid eof his right boot, as the tackle came in from behind. This seems an opportune moment to apologise for our mistake in saying that Freddie would be relishing playing against AIK as they're local rivals to his old club Halmstad. This piece of info, reported in various papers and repeated here, is simply not true (as several Swedish correspondents have written to point out - thanks all!) . Shortly after we nearly got another in similar fashion. Dixon this time stopped the AIK attack with an interception, and fed Ljungberg on the right touchline. His pass forward to Suker was met with an exquisite touch, as the Croatian, moving to the right of the box, produced a back-heel, on the run, to set Bergkamp up on the edge of the area. His low drive again forced a good save. A snap shot from Overmars from outside the box flashed wide, and then AIK's first threat of any kind came in the form of a long-range shot which passed narrowly over the bar (with Manninger well placed to save). Arsenal looked much less assured at the start of the second half, and before long defensive lapses led to AIK's equaliser. It looked like AIK's attack had been thwarted as Keown headed clear from a cross from the right. But the ball came down a few yards outside the box and Overmars failed to take control of the situation, carelessly giving it away to a Swede who slipped it forward into the box. We tried to play offside, but Winterburn was slow coming out and the striker Nordin was left with just Manninger to beat whihc he did comfotably, lifting the ball into the side of the net. Wenger responded with the first of 3 aggressive (and highly effective) substitutions, with Silvinho coming on for Grimandi (who had been the victim of a very bad high and late challenge at the start of the half). Suker was pulled down receiving a pass from Bergkamp and Dennis curled the free-kick, just left of centre outside the box, over the wall and just past the top left corner (it actually hit the pole holding the net up at the back, on the outside, briefly fooling some fans into thinking we'd scored). Wenger then made his other substitutions, with Overmars and Ljungberg being replaced by Kanu and Henry, so that we were playing the last 20 minutes with 4 out-and-out strikers on the pitch. Henry made an impact, being pulled down on the right wing as he looked about to wriggle through a cluster of defenders. Bergkamp's free-kick was met in the box by an excellent cushioned standing header from Keown, which he directed nicely to the far post but with the keeper well beaten it hit the face of the post and Kanu couldn't get space to turn it back in. AIK were determined not to let us approach their box. Kanu was th enext to be bundled over and this time Bergkamp went for goal with a very long range low shot which again the keeper did well to get down to save. Finally AIK had another attack, and again beat the offside trap with 2 strikers clear on goal. But the one with the ball took it wide to the left when he got into the box, and with Keown getting back to cover his partner striker Dixon and Winterburn got across to block the shot (it appeared to come off Nigel's arm and I have to say that while it didn't look exactly deliberate, I've seen less obvious handballs given). Winterburn fed Bergkamp on the left wing and he passed it long into the box where Suker controlled it and then pulled off another magical touch, flicking a square pass at an unlikely angle to Henry who, with time and space in the box, tried to curl it inside the far post. But the curl just didn't happen this time. It would have been a contender for goal of the season. The 4th official held up the board saying 4 minutes, Arsenal fans started preparing the post mortem, and before you knew it we were ahead again. Winterburn pumped the ball forward from the half way line and Suker, centrally on the edge of the box, glanced it on with his head to Kanu. He was under pressure and fell down, but from the ground he still managed to flick the ball back to Henry on the edge of the box on our right. He took the pass and drove a low shot inside the far post. AIK responded positively and won a corner, but Manninger punched it clear. Silvinho got in a telling tackle as it fell a few yards outside the box, taking the ball off an AIK player's toe and passing square to Dennis. Seeing Suker and Henry racing forward break he cleverly hit it forward quickly while they were both still in our half. Henry picked it up and took the ball into the area. With the keeper advancing and defenders getting close, he sensibly slipped it square to Suker who'd shadowed Henry's run to his left, and Davor made no mistake in front of an open goal. Next week's match against Barca will of course be a different matter. They beat Fiorentina 4-2 at the Nou Camp last night and looked deadly going forward. But this win establishes us in 2nd place for now, and with 2 of our last 3 matches at Wembley, which looks slightly less of a problem now, we must be fovourites to take second spot at least. Remembering how we felt after last year's last goals conceded by Arsenal, we should spare a thought for AIK. They will be gutted, having conceded TWO crucial late goals in each of their first 2 matches. As Rupe mentions in his report, you have to feel sorry for the AIK contingent after they managed to lose a game for the second week running by conceding two very late goals in ManUre (injury) time but all credit to AW for his bravery in playing four forwards in the closing stages of a game we could easily have lost. Let us all cast our minds back to last season's CL campaign. I believe that we failed to qualify for the knock-out stages for two reasons - in no particular order of course !
Could anybody understand why there wasn't a Yellow card last night ? I couldn't. I thought that the foul on Grimandi was late, high and worthy of a card. If it was our friend Herr Krug from last week the card would have been straight out. I do detect a change in the way that we 'foul' this year - if I can put it that way. There appears to have been little dissent towards officials and fewer 'unnecessary' cautions during the start of this season - has Arsene got the message through to the players at last ? I'm not sure what everybody out there thinks but I felt a little more comfortable at Wembley last night than I did for any of the CL games last season. I had little trouble getting to the game, and getting home (to Richmond), compared to last season's disasters on the trains, the atmosphere was pretty good and there appeared to be fewer 'neutral' fans, judging from the continuing support of the team right through to the final whistle. This bodes well for the remaining home fixtures in this initial Group phase, which will be absolutely crucial to our chances of qualifying for the next round. Now it's the proverbial 'six pointer' against Barca next week. I hope that we can handle the threat of Rivaldo who appears to be on fire this season. What I really hope is that the travelling fans get treated OK. I've heard reports from the Fiorentina match that the police were (as usual) over zealous and that the view was s**t. Considering our diabolical ticket allocation of 1400 in a stadium of over 100,000, I would hope that the Arsenal contingent is just left alone. I wonder how many tickets we give to the opposition ? I reckon that there must have been at least two thousand AIK fans at the match last night, with plenty of room for more. Maybe we should return the favour to Barca when they come to Wembley, and give them the derisory 1400 tickets. Are you listening Mr Dein ? Apart from the result the most pleasing aspect of last night was that it appeared that most spectators boycotted the disgusting, overpriced Wembley Stadium Plc food and made alternative eating arrangements ! That's the way in looked around Block 123 of the South Terrace anyway. Well done everybody, always vote with you feet and your wallet - it never fails. Until next time..... Other reports
copyright belongs to original author where credited. otherwise © Rupert Ward, ArseWeb MMV ArseWeb is NOT the official Arsenal site. The (excellent) official site is here |