Bring Back Pires wrote:Why's everyone so nervous and excited? We're going to be thrashed, there's nothing to be nervous and excited about.
It's such a formality that I'm barely interested to be honest.
You were barely interested in seeing the best team in the world coming to our ground?
Don't think Song is to blame for the 2 goals other then perhaps not communicating, felt Vermalen failed to do his job on both occasions, it was his man and the ball over his side.
Outclassed for 23 or so minutes, well done Almunia for keeping us in the tie almost single-handedly at that point, if we go through to the semi's then Almunia deserves a lot of credit for that. Found some short of shape and defensive discipline after that, couldn't get a grip in midfield but wasn't opened up. Going forward, Nasri and Bendtner were the only ones that looked like carrying any sort of threat. Felt we had done enough by half time to go in and have a go in second half so of course, we make a mess of it, cb and keeper not covering themselves in glory.
Second half was like the second part of the first, Arsenal defending well enough to prevent chances, Barca dominating the ball but oh a sloppy second to concede, what was Vermalen doing? Credit to Wenger for using the one sub slot left to great effect, Eboue and Walcott cuased problems even if the final ball was lacking and we required Valdes to hand us a lifeline. Once we had that goal, we showed the tempo we will need for the second leg, pushing at Barca and causing them problems.
Too many of our players were poor or patchy, good for brief moments then fading. Think our best player was Bendtner, with two assists, as he led the line well and was often one of the few outlets we had capable of taking the pressure off.
Can we get a result in Barca? We can but it will be very difficult and we can not afford such a horrific start again. Looking forward to it