Arsenal 0-2 Barcelona
Arsenal once again gave
themselves a mountain to climb for the second leg of their Champions League
last 16 tie with a poor first leg result.
When the draw was made and
Arsenal were paired with Barcelona the general consensus was that the Gunners
would be knocked out at this stage of the competition for the fifth season in a
row. The supporters filed into Emirates Stadium without much hope, however when
the final whistle sounded on Tuesday night, the most frustrating thing for
Arsenal fans was that the Gunners had performed extremely well and been right
in the game, until they needlessly threw it all away.
Once again the Gunners had been
the masters of their own downfall. Arsene Wenger had asked his side to press
Barcelona high up the pitch and it had worked to great effect. In fact so effective
were these tactics that the away side were only able to muster one clear chance
on goal throughout the entire first half as Luis Suarez headed just wide of
goal right on the stroke of halftime.
The Gunners were excellent as
they kept their discipline and their shape, while working tirelessly throughout
the first half in particular, to chase and harry their opponents. Arsenal even
had the better opportunities but just could not find a clinical touch to steer
the ball home. Ramsey twice failed to connect properly with the ball from extremely
promising positions either side of halftime. Had the Welshman been able to do
so, he would have scored and turned the tie in Arsenal’s favour. However it was
Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain who had the clearest chance of all, collecting the ball
inside the area with the goalkeeper sat on the turf, having dived in an attempt
to save a shot on goal seconds earlier, the Englishman showed a clear lack of
composure as his shot was horribly weak.
In all fairness Barcelona did
improve in the second half and began to test Petr Cech, but the goalkeeper was
standing up to everything the away side were throwing at him. And Arsenal just
kept on coming, with Olivier Giroud’s header forcing a fine save from Ter Stegan
when a more powerful effort would have surely evaded the goalkeeper’s dive.
As the game passed the hour mark,
Arsenal were in great shape. The game plan was working and they were causing
Barcelona problems. However as so often happens the Gunners were their own worst
enemies and only had themselves to blame for throwing the game and the tie
away. The Arsenal players suddenly and needlessly began to get ahead of
themselves and lost their discipline. Francis Coquelin, normally the most
disciplined Arsenal man in his defensive midfield role, began to creep further
and further forward and began to get caught out. With the Frenchman out of position the Arsenal defence
was being left exposed and it was only a matter of time before the inevitable
happened.
It is at times like this that the
manager and coaching staff earn their money. Players in the heat of the moment
can lose their discipline but seeing his side start to lose their shape and
playing right into Barcelona’s hands, Wenger should have pulled at least one of
his players to one side and got the message across to ensure the team curbed
their over exuberant attacking intentions.
Unfortunately the manager didn’t
do this and Arsenal were made to pay. In echoes of last season’s first leg tie
against Monaco, the Gunners were hit on the break and never recovered. As the
ball reached the halfway line and was played towards Neymar on the wing, Per
Mertesacker needlessly launched into a do or die tackle which he never came
close to winning. Suddenly the defence was exposed and Neymar was bearing down
on goal. Although Koscielny appeared to have Neymar covered, panic had spread
and Monreal moved across in an attempt to help the Frenchman. However having done so, Monreal had left
Messi unmarked at the back post and as the ball was player towards him, Cech
slipped slightly and Messi was able to steer the ball home.
Having put in so much effort,
this was a terrible blow for Arsenal. However taking a 0-1 loss into the second
leg wouldn’t have been such a bad position to be in. Yet the Gunners just had
to press the self destruct button once more. Per Mertesacker’s actions once
again caused panic amongst the Arsenal players as the German’s poor attempted
clearance was so bad it fell straight to Messi inside the penalty area and Flamini
brought down the Argentine to concede a penalty only 47 seconds after coming on
for Coquelin.
Messi stepped up and sent Cech
the wrong way to effectively end the tie as a contest. Few gave Arsenal a
chance before the game and with the Gunners now having to score three goals at
the Nou Camp to have any chance of progressing, their chances are realistically
over. Wenger was furious in the post match press conference as it was his
player’s sudden lack of discipline which had been their undoing. The Gunners
had shown they were a match for Barcelona and could cause them problems but
just couldn’t keep it up for the whole 90 minutes. The Gunners must now dust
themselves off and get ready for an important league game against Manchester
United on Sunday which they cannot afford to lose. If they are to be
successful, Arsenal must learn how to maintain their discipline, they cannot
keep on repeating the same mistakes over and over again.
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