AC Milan 0 – 2 Arsenal : UEFA CHAMPIONS LEAGUE 2ND ROUND

Well what can i say, one of the most tense european nights i have witnessed as an Arsenal fan.  Proud of the team, Milan with two players being Kaka and Pato being under 30 years of age, as Clichy pointed out width was going to be the key to victory and he wasnt wrong there. Game started brightly for us with Adebayor and Hleb terrorising the Milan defence. Oddo at right back was getting outclassed by Adebayor and Diaby. Arsenal had a number of opportunities including Hleb firing over the bar and Fabregas’ drive cannoning back off the woodwork. Milan started to get into their rhythym but couldnt find a way past Almunia. All square at half time.

 Second half and i was nearly physically sick, expectation, tension and confidence where the emotions that were running through my eins as well as the rush of adrenaline. Pato and Kaka were poor being marked out of the game, Pirlo is overrated now, everyone must be able to see it, the Italian Frank Lampard i dub thee. I held my head in my hand when Senderos missing a golden opportunity as not being marked from a corner. The ball then fell to Eboue, a slack pass from Pirlo gave the ball Abebayor who switched to Eboue who fired well wide, Arsene please get rid of him, he is not worthy to wear the colours. Walcott came on for Eboue shortly after and he could have been a hero when he was played in and tried to cut back to Adebayor when Kalac a.k.a Lurch denied him. Then came my moment of ectsasy. Fabregas recieved the ball just inside their half and mugged off Ambrosini and unleashed an unstoppable 30 yard drive into the bottom corner. 1-0 to the Arsenal! Milan had to score two and in doing so went all out attack with Gilardino coming on. Then a long ball to Walcott had him one-one-one with Kaladze, he sucked him in and bombed towards the goal, he fired across the goal to none other than Adebayor for his first Champions League goal. 2-0 and there was pandemonium in my household. The whistle went and we were through. COME ON THE ARSENAL!

Almunia – safe hands as always

Sagna – Did his job, kept Kaka and Pato quiet

Gallas – Looked quiet, done what he had to do

Senderos – Could have been a hero, easily his best Arsenal game

Clichy – Back on form linking up well with Diaby

Eboue – Still frustrates us all   (SUBBED FOR Walcott: Done well, assisted second goal superbly)

Fabregas – MOM: Words fail me, immense

Flamini – Kept Kaka on lock, such a vital player

Hleb –  Shone during first half, quiet in the second (SUBBED FOR Gilberto: Too late for impact)

Diaby – Very well done, impressed me a lot

Adebayor – Mugged off Oddo four times, cooly slotting home for his first Champions League goal

Thats all folks from me, Mr Robbatto’s partner in crime, Jack.

A truely shocking injury, reckless, late, accidental all words used to describe the tackle on one Eduardo Da Silva. The club (Arsenal F.C) did release a statement regarding the injury and what will happen from here.

The Club can confirm that following the incident during Saturday’s match at Birmingham City, Eduardo has fractured his left fibula and sustained an open dislocation of his ankle joint in the same leg.

He was immediately taken to Selly Oak Hospital in Birmingham where he underwent surgery on Saturday evening. The operation was successful and Eduardo was transferred to a London-based hospital on Sunday afternoon.

Earlier today (Monday 25th February), the Orthopaedic surgeon and Arsenal medical staff assessed the extent of the damage and possible time scale for a full recovery.

All being well, Eduardo will have his leg in plaster and using crutches for the next six to eight weeks. After that time, partial weight-bearing exercises will be scheduled into a slow rehabilitation process.

It is hoped that Eduardo will be running again in six months time and making a full recovery after nine months.

Eduardo will be released from hospital in a few days.

The Arsenal medical team would like to take this opportunity to thank Birmingham City FC for their assistance on the day as well as the surgical and ward staff on S2 at Selly Oak Hospital for their expert medical care.

In addition, and on behalf of Eduardo, the Club would like to thank everyone for their many touching messages of support.

 

Finally we do have some good news come out of this, unlike lots of hear say and rumors floating around for the past 48 hours. If you would like to pass on any messages to Eduardo you can do so via Arsenal.com and kudos to the fans holding up the Eduardo shirt. Everyone who is a fan of football, involved with the game etc wishes him a full recovery no player deserves this type of injury.

 

As for Taylor he has said sorry and of course is shook up which we can understand. I don’t hold a grudge against him and nor should anyone else, these injuries do happen in football. The ref did the right thing in sending him off, the man was shell shocked and couldn’t play with that hang over his shoulders. The tackle was reckless no doubt so once again all the best for Eduardo.

Welcome

This is an introduction on what will be posted within this blog by me and another author I ask in due time.

As you can tell it is a football blog by 2 dudes, it won’t just be club football from England it will be football from abroad and international football when ever the games take place. If the blog is doing well we have other things in the works.

A look into the build up of Euro 2008. Will it be a succesful championship for the hosts, the Premiership title racing hotting up, the rise of Inter domestically and fall in Europe.