Arsenal -v- Barça, Champions league Last 16 1st leg

NWPat

Good result for the Woolwich Wanderers, Barca thought they had it won, always a dangerous thought before the 90 mins are up. I give the Woolwich half a chance of going through.

iMuse

Headshot wrote: »

What is the story with Vermaelen, when is he back ?

Should only be 2-3 weeks away but hes had a few setbacks this season.

efb

Match looked great in HD too! This reminds me why football, when played like this, IS The Beautiful Game.

Headshot

iMuse wrote: »

Should only be 2-3 weeks away but hes had a few setbacks this season.

damn

He may not be back for the 2nd leg, shame.

the untitled user

Who gives a **** who deserved it. No reckless tackles, no play acting, chances either end, some wonderful interplay, some great last gasp defending... why can't football always be like this?

Mister men

#15 wrote: »

You're a good luck charm MM.

Every match thread that you appear in (this one, Spurs last night, every Utd comeback) you seem to spur on those teams to victory.

On behalf of Utd, Arsenal and Spurs fans everywhere, may your low-level trolling continue for many years to come.

:pac::pac::pac:

I aim to please many my friend

Liam O

LuckyGent88 wrote: »

No it doesnt. but if yee are 3 down at half time do you think yee would have got back into that game. I dont think so somehow.

Obviously if Arsenal were 3 down it would be harder to come back and win

what's your point?

Frisbee

Headshot wrote: »

What is the story with Vermaelen, when is he back ?

Starting back with the reserves in two weeks.

That_Guy

Meh, our 3-2 victory was better. :pac:

MUSEIST

efb wrote: »

Match looked great in HD too! This reminds me why football, when played like this, IS The Beautiful Game.

Tbh the second half was really dull with poor atmosphere until arsenal scored and it was much better.
And valdes wtf, awful goalkeeper, really awful.

Johner

Ordinary man wrote: »

When song went off and nasri went to midfield they looked better. With wiltshire, nasri and fabregas they held the ball better

yahoo_moe

So Barca miss chances first half... should have been 3-0 apparently.

Arsenal miss chances first half... should still have been 3-0. Arsenal's missed chances don't count.

Nice.

BERBA

Mister men wrote: »

I aim to please many my friend

best of luck tomorrow night in the johnston paints trophy:P

Mister men

God dang it i enjoyed that game so much my tea is gone cold.:)

greendom

Possession stats interesting Arsenal 47% - 53% Barca - Wonder when the last time Barca's was so low.

TimeToShine

Best 10 minutes of my life.

Kidchameleon

To All the Doubters,

I was right, YOU were wrong

Kylo Ren

Great game.

Memnoch

yahoo_moe wrote: »

So Barca miss chances first half... should have been 3-0 apparently.

Arsenal miss chances first half... should still have been 3-0. Arsenal's missed chances don't count.

Nice.

Barca didn't miss chances.

They had a perfectly good goal disallowed. And in fact could have had a penalty if they had missed that chance instead of the goal being disallowed.

Then they had a clear penalty disallowed when Koshelny made no attempt to play the ball and dragged Pedro down.

And that's apart from the missed chances. The quality of the commentating on ITV was horrendously biased, I'm guessing RTE was the same.

LuckyGent88

Liam O wrote: »

Obviously if Arsenal were 3 down it would be harder to come back and win

what's your point?

yee were lucky to be only 1 nil down which allowed the players to believe yee could get back into the game. Wenger gave a good half team talk which put the confidence back into his players cause there heads had dropped and as the the 2nd half went along there belief grew. This mainly came from the much better defending in 2nd half....Koschelney MOTM in my opinion and definitly in top 3 signings of the season in premier league

greendom

Did Dunphy actually watch the game or did he put a paper bag on his head where he keeps his pre-conceptions.

adox

TimeToShine wrote: »

Best 10 minutes of my life.

Yeah but what about the game?:D

Lukker-

Memnoch wrote: »

Barca didn't miss chances.

They had a perfectly good goal disallowed. And in fact could have had a penalty if they had missed that chance instead of the goal being disallowed.

Then they had a clear penalty disallowed when Koshelny made no attempt to play the ball and dragged Pedro down.

And that's apart from the missed chances. The quality of the commentating on ITV was horrendously biased, I'm guessing RTE was the same.

On RTÉ it was pretty much a Barca wankfest until Arsenal equalized..

SuprSi

Two lovely goals. The second one particular reminded me of Spurs Fair play to Arsenal though. Great result and I think they definitely have a chance in the return leg.

tony1kenobi

Chiles just said Messi was "magnificent".....does that make Kos and JD "otherworldly"? Does Chiles know that word?F*ck back to your Jeremy Kyle warm up gig ya brum knob.

SDTimeout

Memnoch wrote: »

Barca didn't miss chances.

They had a perfectly good goal disallowed. And in fact could have had a penalty if they had missed that chance instead of the goal being disallowed.

Then they had a clear penalty disallowed when Koshelny made no attempt to play the ball and dragged Pedro down.

And that's apart from the missed chances. The quality of the commentating on ITV was horrendously biased, I'm guessing RTE was the same.

We have different definitions of dragging someone down . What about Pedro controlling the ball in that same incident with his hand across his body ?

BERBA

SuprSi wrote: »

Two lovely goals. The second one particular reminded me of Spurs Fair play to Arsenal though. Great result and I think they definitely have a chance in the return leg.

yeah we could do with them knockin out barca alright:D

Mister men

Giles and the dunph laying into Walcott.:rolleyes:

eZe^

tony1kenobi wrote: »

Chiles just said Messi was "magnificent".....does that make Kos and JD "otherworldly"? Does Chiles know that word?F*ck back to your Jeremy Kyle warm up gig ya brum knob.

Messi was bollix all night. Haha.

L'prof

SDTimeout wrote: »

We have different definitions of dragging someone down . What about Pedro controlling the ball in that same incident with his hand across his body ?

Never a pen in a million years!!!

yahoo_moe

greendom wrote: »

Possession stats interesting Arsenal 47% - 53% Barca - Wonder when the last time Barca's was so low.

60-40 on UEFA site. Really frustrates me how these stats change from place to place.

Completed over twice the amount of passes that Arsenal did... but as people always say when Arsenal draw despite possession, there's only stat that counts!

tony1kenobi

Didn't like Fabs first answer.Bit worrying.Robin is a cool motherf*cker.

adox

Jaysus somebody get Van Persie a strepsil.

L'prof

tony1kenobi wrote: »

Didn't like Fabs first answer.Bit worrying.Robin is a cool motherf*cker.

Just being honest, fair play to him!

yahoo_moe

Memnoch wrote: »

Barca didn't miss chances.

They had a perfectly good goal disallowed. And in fact could have had a penalty if they had missed that chance instead of the goal being disallowed.

Then they had a clear penalty disallowed when Koshelny made no attempt to play the ball and dragged Pedro down.

And that's apart from the missed chances. The quality of the commentating on ITV was horrendously biased, I'm guessing RTE was the same.

Goodnight so, that's me out of this argument I think.

Headshot

I ****ing hate Houghton

From his advert to his punditry, just wish he **** off

tony1kenobi

L'prof wrote: »

Just being honest, fair play to him!

Yea I am probably thinking too much!!

Paparazzo

greendom wrote: »

Did Dunphy actually watch the game or did he put a paper bag on his head where he keeps his pre-conceptions.

At half time he said arsenal had no chances, the ball was never up that end. At full time he said "and arsenal had 3 or 4 great chances in the first half too".

eZe^

Headshot wrote: »

I ****ing hate Houghton

From his advert to his punditry, just wish he **** off

Annoys the sh*t out of me too, last CL campaign he was talking about how fun it'll be watching Alves and Messi link up for Argentina in South Africa, because they have such a deadly partnership at club level. Clueless fool.

dfx-

Colinboy wrote: »

Just goes to show the mighty Barca arent unbeatable!

You can read plenty of opinions from Barcelona fans in the superthread saying the exact same thing for the past few weeks...

If Barcelona don't get through in the second leg, there'll be war. Being 0-1 up in 77 minutes and pretty much got Arsenal on their knees is not a position to be losing 2-1.

poolboy

Excelent game 2 teams i could watch play all day still think arsenal are up against it in the return leg but so much to admire about Arsenal and in Jack Willshire i think they have the superstar of the future. Good Luck to them

KeithAFC

Seeing all these people talk about decisions etc. Yeah, that is football. Happens all the time. Arsenal probably should of taken the lead first, Van persie should of hit the back of the net with his first chance. Abidal made a fantastic clearance to stop van persie scoring near post.

Memnoch

yahoo_moe wrote: »

Goodnight so, that's me out of this argument I think.

Yes I can see how that looks. But you know what I meant. i.e. it should have been 3-0 missed chances or not.

Congratulations on arguing semantics rather than substance. Goodnight to you, Sir.

Dolph Starbeam

What a game! I am hoping for Barca to go through but i am delighted for Arsenal, its not often you see teams stick to a proper game plan against Barca and it worked brilliantly.

Iniesta did very little, even though Alves and Messi were not on top of there game there movement was very dangerous, it could easily have finished 3-2 to Barca, i don't think i've ever see Messi miss 2 chances like he did tonight.

The return leg should be another cracker. Barca will miss Pique a lot.

speedboatchase

If Arsenal knock out Barca, can we forget about the whole 'best team of all time' tag... seriously?

niallo27

Paparazzo wrote: »

At half time he said arsenal had no chances, the ball was never up that end. At full time he said "and arsenal had 3 or 4 great chances in the first half too".

In fairness he said they have no chance over the two legs but they had a chance tonight, i dont know why im defending him because he is a tit

Ush1

B*llocks, if Messi had put in that early chance I would have been 150 euro better off.

Ah well, well done Arsenal. Barca were creaming themself up and having a w*nk while the tie was still very much alive. I'd say things will be different in the Nou Camp though.

flahavaj

Great gae of football betwen tow quality sides. Aesenal did very well to get back into it and I was happy for them getting the win. But really Barca could've been out of sight before then. I thought Messi was a tad self indulgent tonight, the early chance he had should been stuck away instead of trying to feint the chip. Dare I say if Ronaldo did that he'd be getting slated?

Wilshire was absolutely class, what a mature performance from such a young guy. Arsenal's second was a thing of beauty.

Barca will still win pretty handily at Camp Nou I think, Arsenal's playing such a high line was exposed a few times and will be decimated if they do it again.

dfx-

speedboatchase wrote: »

If Arsenal knock out Barca, can we forget about the whole 'best team of all time' tag... seriously?

If Barcelona are knocked out because of those last 13 stupid minutes, then no, no we can't.

speedboatchase

dfx- wrote: »

If Barcelona are knocked out because of those last 13 stupid minutes, then no, no we can't.

There's a second leg...