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| delight on the face of wenger after v. persie's equalizer |
okay so lets just get straight into the team news....both managers played their regular starting XI although nasri was back for arsenal which gave them a boost and he played out on the left wing with v. persie and walcott alongside him in attack...fabregas(Captain) played in the playmaking position behind the striker and song and wilshere were charged with having to deal with barcas attacks through the center....eboue, koscielny, djourou and clichy were in defence with the youngster szczesny making his champions league debut in the goal...
guardiola went with the side that has produced sooo much amazing football this season minus puyol in defence...valdes in goal...alves, pique, abidal and maxwell in defence with busquets xavi(captain) and iniesta in midfield and messi, villa and pedro up front!....
well even more was said about this game than the previous 1 due to all the events that took place between the two clubs, the most prominent one being barca's continued desire to get cesc fabregas back to where he initially started his career after the player himself expressed his desire to move back!...that transfer saga lasted the whole of last summer until fabregas finally put an end to it by saying he'l be staying...it was also a big occasion due to the fact that messi had basically ripped apart arsenals defence in the second leg at camp nou and most people....a lot of arsenal fans themselves included weren expecting much from this fixture!....
however once we kickoffed at the emirates the scene was totally different and arsenal attacked right from the off signalling their intentions very clearly....barca are used to A LOT of possession in their matches and mustv been expecting a re-run of last years first leg in which they totally controlled the whole flow of the game and wouldv been 5-0 up in the first 10 min if not for some excellent goal keeping from manuel almunia...the case this time around however was different and for the first 25 min barca couldn put together a proper passing move!...this was due to the fact that this time....arsenal were playing a very high line and were pressing a lot....nasri and walcott were continuously dropping back meaning when barca had the ball, they retreated in 2 banks of 4 making it hard for the catalans to play their usual game....there was however once chance on th 15th min when messi springed clear of the defence and got on to a perfectly weighted through ball from david villa and was through on goal but couldn direct his chip over szczesny properly and the ball drifted just wide of the post....th goal keeper has to be given credit there as he stayed up for as long as he could and forced the shot from messi who every1 had expected to score and half the barca fans had even already started celebrating!.....
walcott's lightning quick pace caused barca a lot of problems at the other end and he was continuously getting the better of maxwell who lets be honest was never really a match in terms of quickness....regualar chances were created through him but the finishing wasnt good enough from v.persie and fabregas....
and they were made to pay for it in the 25th min when after some neat foot work from messi the ball was played through to david villa who looked to be off side at first but clichy played him on and was made to suffer for it after a clinical finish from the spanish no7....barca dominated possession and chances for the remainder of the half and couldv easily been more up as daniel alves was being left completely unmarked again and again on the right hand side it looked like he was a right winger instead of a right back(*well he always does look like that*)
SECOND HALF
the second half had a relatively quiet beginning to it and the pattern of play seemed to continue with barca still dominating possession...then came the change that in my p.o.v changed the game for both sides....well changes i should say....guardiola took off villa and brought on keita shifting iniesta into a more advanced role while wenger took off song who was having a tough time coping with the speed of the play and was sitting pretty on a final warning after a series of bad tackles and brought on arshavin putting nasri in the middle....the fact that barca had taken off their main striker and brought on a holding mid meant that they lost most of their attacking threat and were concentrating more on possession...arsenal had made a positive attacking change and got more involved in the game after that and created more chances...jack wilshire...who btw had an EXCELLENT game considering hes still just 19 was involved in most of the chances and handled the center midfield brilliantly!...
pedro did have a good chance to extend barcas lead after he got a long ball out from abidal but koscielny handled the situation very well and was able to snuff out the danger...
then came the moment arsenal fans had been waiting for for a long time...following a free kick in their own half, th ball was squared out to clichy from fabregas and the left back made a bustling run forward....exchanging passes with arshavin in the process before layin a good through ball to v.persie on the edge of th box...the dutchman didn look like he could score from that angle but somehow managed to smash it past valdes at the near post for a fantastic finish!....he is on hot form right now and it showed with the way he took that on!....
arsenal marched on from their on in and the second goal followed quickly....5 min after th first, th ball was played nicely in defence and kept away from barcas players before fabregas launched a through ball to the right wing where nasri was lurking....the frenchmen took it forward a bit then cut it inside and layed it off to arshavin who was comin in from the far side and a brilliant finish from the russian secured a deserved win for arsenal!....
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| arshavin celebrates in style after securing the win for his side |
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