Wednesday, March 31, 2010

2-2 draw against Barcelona shows Arsenal isn't a Pushover.

Arsenal return from 0-2 behind to 2-2 draw isn't best result Arsenal can get, but however it shows Barca couldn't easily beat Arsenal. Even though Barca is playing in Emirates, Barca had more possesion and more chances. The first half ended with 0-0 result, as Almunia made some good saves. Arsenal suffers more in the first half as Arshavin had to be substituted by Emmanuel Eboue and William Gallas had to be taken off for Denilson.

Great game showed by both team, playing attacking football. Arsenal shows no fear facing Barcelona with attacking football. Rarely a team brave enough to face barca with open play, and ususally Barca's oppostion opts to play defensively and search a counter attack goal.

However, Arsenal didn't do a good defending, and conceded two preventable goal. It was still the first minutes of second half when Ibrahimovic scored a goal, and looks like Alexandr Song, who pushed back to center back position, was out of position, and allowed Ibrahimovic to score. And it's also a miscomunication between Song, Vermaelen, and also Clichy who made Ibrahimovic escaped from an offside trap.

After Arsenal introduced Theo Walcott, everything changed, Arsenal got more chances, and also left flank from Barca is always bombarded. It's just few minutes after Walcott came in, Arsenal finally managed to score a goal. It's the substitute Walcott who score a goal, after getting through pass from Nicklas Bendtner. In the remaining 20 minutes, Arsenal looks likely to equalize, but it didn't happen until Fabregas' penalty. It was Puyol who obstructing Fabregas. Puyol was given a red card because he is the last man, and Arsenal got penalty. Fabregas did his job scoring the penalty. Arsenal back leveled. And the score remained till the end of first half.

2-2 actually gives advantage to Barcelona, who gets two away goals, but Arsenal is a team who can score in both home and away goal. But, seeing the Barca's domination, Arsenal would have a very hard game in Camp Nou 2nd leg, and Arsenal would miss Captain Cesc Fabregas after picking up yellow card. However, Barca is also missing Captain Carles Puyol and his center back tandem, Gerard Pique.

If Arsenal could play like second half last 20 minutes, Arsenal could beat any teams in the world!

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