CL: Real Madrid vs Arsenal/AFC vs RM | 21/02/06 & 08/03/06

[IBL]

LEHMAN IS NOW A F**KIN LEGEND

Best EVER save at Highbury??!! Quite possibly :shock:

Absolutely thrilled.

Everyone was AWESOME, great desire and grit.

Well done the lads.

 

[nazo]

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/ne ... 02133.html

Arsenal's self-belief never wavered. Right-back Emmanuel Eboué, 22, playing just his fifth UEFA Champions League game, looked to press forward in support of Aleksandr Hleb whenever the occasion allowed. Cesc Fabregas, at 18 already the starlet of the Arsenal midfield, was rarely panicked into a rushed clearance, his flicks and clever one-touch play further evidence of his confidence. At left-back Mathieu Flamini, 22, was the measure of Beckham while Philippe Senderos, 21, stood firm nearly a year to the day after making his UEFA Champions League debut at this stage of the competition. Arsenal defeated FC Bayern München 1-0 that night, but it was not enough to take them through to the quarter-finals.


That alone is amazing.

 

[quattro]

the most exciting 0-0 i have ever seen. we totally deserved to go through. very disciplined defence and very measured attacks. hats off to jens lehmann. what a totally brilliant save.

also, how good was aleks hleb? the guy is really growing into his role.

 

[Guillermo]

I know it's been said a million times before, but after seeing Cesc in action tonight, it's so hard to believe he's still only 18.

So much maturity, confidence and finesse. He was made for the European game.

 

[nidza7]

the most exciting 0-0 i have ever seen.

totally true!

 

[Sol man]

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/news/Kind=1/newsId=402133.html

Arsenal's self-belief never wavered. Right-back Emmanuel Eboué, 22, playing just his fifth UEFA Champions League game, looked to press forward in support of Aleksandr Hleb whenever the occasion allowed.
That alone is amazing.

The combination of Hleb and Eboue on the right side looks promising.

 

[TheEconomist]

well bringing on salgado instead of cicinho worked very well for Real Madrid, Reyes had a lot more trouble trying to get around him. They may have missed Cicinho's runs on the wing, but too be honest, Salgado did contribute to their attack too, while being a lot more secure in defence.

 

[Beany]

Wow, so Arsène Wenger's Arsenal "is an airplane".

No wonder Bergkamp want's to retire!

And if it's an Airplane is Henry the pillot? Is RVP the trolley dolly?

I guess that Cygan is the baggage handler.

 

[NIPOLOPO]

http://www.uefa.com/competitions/UCL/news/Kind=1/newsId=402133.html

Arsenal's self-belief never wavered. Right-back Emmanuel Eboué, 22, playing just his fifth UEFA Champions League game, looked to press forward in support of Aleksandr Hleb whenever the occasion allowed.
That alone is amazing.

The combination of Hleb and Eboue on the right side looks promising.

Indeed,they complement eachother very well.

 

[NIPOLOPO]

Wow, so Arsène Wenger's Arsenal "is an airplane".

No wonder Bergkamp want's to retire!

And if it's an Airplane is Henry the pillot? Is RVP the trolley dolly?

I guess that Cygan is the baggage handler.

ROFL Nice post beany

 

[Artillero]

Well done to all the lads Jens and Eboue were fantastic all night. Hleb is showing great form at last.

129 pages in this thread! One more than the Baptista one, thank **** for that!

 

[yonatan]

I think I can sum it all up by saying the same thing I screamed earlier tonight: "YESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!!!"

Lehmann: best. save. ever.

Hleb: amazing, nobody could touch him, the ball was magically stuck to his feet, he maybe lost it once or twice and all his passes were perfect. HE EVEN TOOK A SHOT!!!! BRILLIANT!

Henry: awesome. he still wasn't moving around as much as I would've liked him to, running into spaces and all that. he was slowing down the attacks, hence basically no counter-attacks but his passing was superb. he created dozens of chances for himself with his own skill and for others with his passes. He kinda fluffed his chances to score goals but I guess no one will remember that because most of the time he turned them into passes for other goal opportunities (see Reyes hits Salgado). We need Van Persie to put all those chances away in the back of the net, I do believe that he's the most clinical finisher in our team.

Ljungberg: again, great defensively, so so attackingly but still great.

Fabregas: great passes, constant hassling of opposition midfielders (and defence... and attack). It was classic to me the way he was matched up against Zidane in large parts of the game, the old maestro vs. the new upcoming and refreshing maestro. I think this match up basically symbolized this whole game, Old old Madrid who've won it all and are now playing at the end of their careers vs. new refreshing upcoming power Arsenal.

Gilberto: I think today was the first time I really realized wtf he does on the pitch. This is probably due to my somewhat limited (I admit it but I'm happy to learn from the likes of patrick42uk and... sometimes kel_varnsen although you really do say a lot of BS ) tactical but what he really does is not only block off those shots\passes and let them hit him and of course we know that he doesn't really know how to tackle properly. He is the one who stands there and due to his amazing understanding of the game he can block, not one, but TWO passing opportunities for a player forcing him to the third least desirable (by the opposition, of course) passing option which a lot of the times doesn't exist\is too hard to get to and makes him lose the ball. Basically what he does is just... stand there but the standing is just brilliant because he stands exactly in the right spaces, closing down passing opportunities and space from which players can take shots before they even think of doing those things. That's why he's played so bad when we played so bad - it wasn't the other way around, it was because we were forcing him to do things that he isn't even supposed to do. He's doing the work of two men by closing down the two passes freeing up the second CM to tackle\pass\pressure the player. Gilberto was playing bad because Arsenal was playing bad and not the other way around. Sorry, I just had a little epiphany there and went a little off topic. I was one of those getting pissed off at him every second this season (not flaming him on the forums but rather when watching games).

Anyway, my post is too long and nobody's gonna bother reading it anyway.

 

[calisto]

Thank God, we sailed through. Just want to commend the efforts of the players, they were fantastic, it was an exciting match, pleasing to the eye. Both teams played well, good entertainment, I'm not going to single any player out cos they stuck for each other. Wish them the best and hope u fans stay committed to this darling team. Stop the scathing peeps, come on Gunners!!!

 

[Artillero]

What a great night only better if Pires had got that long range effort.

 

[Beany]

Hey, I read it. And it's a good post.

I was at the game tonight and I can tell you, the stand out players were Hleb & Eboue. Incredible in terms of the step they took up.

Lehman deserved MOTM for that save alone though.

Of course, Henry, Fabregas et all did the business too - only Senderos appeared a little shaky to me but then again he played in a key role so perhaps that's unfair.

Anyroad, bring on Froday. Not only the draw but it's also the day I get my 2 season tickets allocated for Ashburton Grove. I've even taken the day of to celebrate!

 

[yonatan]

Thanks!

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention Eboue. For him alone I have to make another post. He's amazing. He has amazing pace (as fast if not faster than Roberto Carlos), tackles (Colesque), physicality (I dunno who to compare that to but he can't be outmuscled off the ball). He's athletic, makes great bursting runs, recovers well if caught out, isn't afraid to try getting by a few players and be yelled at by Henry for going solo and trying to have a shot. I think we've got our right flank settled for a decade or so. Yes, I know you can say it's too early to judge but honestly, he hasn't put a foot wrong since he's come back from the African Cup of Nations (other than the Liverpool pen. which was a ****ing BS penalty anyway). We used to think he was only great attacking-wise and would be better suited to the right midfield role but Wenger proved us wrong and proved once again that the statement, "Wenger knows" is true*.




*well, at least in most cases.

 

[CATMANREYES]

YEEEEES, excelent game
i was soooo nervous the whole game, hleb incredible, and lehman...no word to describe his game brilliant go gunners

 

[dafish]

Wow, so Arsène Wenger's Arsenal "is an airplane".

No wonder Bergkamp want's to retire!

And if it's an Airplane is Henry the pillot? Is RVP the trolley dolly?

I guess that Cygan is the baggage handler.

ROFL Nice post beany

personally i like cygan... but then i swear some would think he's just the baggage... :roll:

 

[Canadian Gooner]

I don't want to start being negative on such a great night, but did anyone hear Henry's interview on the BBC site?

I like his attitude about how we have to "keep our feet on the ground" and not get carried away with the win, but then the guy asks him about his committment and if this win did anything to help that.

Henry replied by saying something like "oh, don't worry about it, the night is about the team."

He seems to say that all the time now, and just the way he talked about it tonight makes me feel like he doesn't want to be hear anymore and he's just playing out this year...

If anyone's heard the interview, what do you think?

 

[Henry_Pires]

Just to give another thought,
(especially for you who place bet for this game )

I got this from uefa.com :
Referee : Ľuboš Micheľ (SVK)
Assistant referee : Martin Balko (SVK) Roman Slyško (SVK)
Fourth official : Pavel Olšiak (SVK)

Actually these guys are the one who sent Liverpool to final last year
through their brave decision on Garcia's goal.

I think he was 3rd on 2005 best referee list,
below Markus Merk and Metujo Gonzales.

So hopefully he will not be intimidated easily.

This Referee : Ľuboš Micheľ (SVK) was the best.
Didn't give the penalty when Gilberto tackling Ronaldo.