The Sagrada: Like Today's Visitors, Still a Work in Progress
It’s up for grabs now. But there will be no Michael Thomas on the pitch today.
Instead it will be a dizzying array of talent as Arsenal go to the Nou Camp for the second leg of its Champions League round of 16 tie with FC Barcelona. The Gunners hold a 2-1 lead. It seems so incredibly precarious.
The Gunners actually held the lead after about 15 minutes of this equivalent fixture last year. Nicky Pink’s early goal gave the Gunners a 3-2 aggregate lead. In fact Bendtner was again through on goal clean moments later but was incorrectly flagged for being offside. After that it was a fourtet of goals from Leo Messi and the Gunners ended up on the wrong side of an embarrassing 6-3 aggregate scoreline.
God help Arsenal that it might come down to the same this year: Needing Bendtner to score (RvP will be a gametime decision) and stopping (or not stopping Messi). The Argentine did his best to help Arsenal do the latter in the first leg by blowing two golden chances.
Anyway, ninety minutes will decide it. The crazy thing is, all the winner gets is a quarterfinal draw. The second best team in the world’s best league and the best club team in the world with nothing more at stake than the possibility of drawing Schalke or Marseilles in the next round. It seems so anticlimactic.
Roma also go to Waxtap to try to overturn a 3-2 deficit. Since dumping Claudio Ranieri for Vincenzo Montella late last month, the Giallorossi are undefeated (2 wins and 1 draw). Keep on eye on this match as, if Roma get up a goal early, this could be pretty entertaining stuff as well.
So, the first two teams get to punch their tickets for the next round in a couple of hours time. There are is a who slew of games in the Championship and below. But really, we have Champions League football today. And it (hopefully) will be awesome for a Tuesday.
That’s a dive for me, he ran over his leg, not the other way around
Almunia is terrible. Really, really bad.
Almunia didn’t even fucking move. That guy is teh suck.
This is nauseating. Was he even touched?
But now Arsenal just need a tie to go through at least
@Brian
I really like the whites.
I think it was a good call.
He didn’t move because he was leaning to his left, but diving to his right, so when the ball went left, he was stranded
I just realized I was watching the game behind like 2 minutes on tape delay
Arsenal’s through at 3-2, right?
Why the hell didn’t Kenny start again?
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/VillaFanCriticizingSquadSelectioninaCup
oops; left a tag open
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/potkettleblack
//effinghipster
///TWEEDYISYOURGOD
@LE: Yes.
@Stephen, It was a penalty, just really soft. Koscielny’s leg was out long before Pedro ran into it, but he ran into it, so there was contact, so it was a pen
@Keith: He broke a finger. Subbed off early in the first half.
Here comes all sorts of time wasting.
Pants of the Match Award: Referee.
@MP: Whoops. I’d take Kenny with a broken finger over Manny Fresh any day
Gotta love Villa’s 4 extra rolls.
Also, I’d take Flappyhandsky over Manny.
Fab off, Bendy on
Cesc off? I don’t see how that helps, especially when your sub is Nicky
We’d be much more in this match if Cesc wasn’t injured? Wait, what? Oh my bad.
So it looks like Koscielny was a good bit of business. If this holds he’s directly responsible for knocking Arsenal out of the CL and losing the CC. I would advise y’all sit him for your next FA Cup match.
@LE, You can’t blame him, he’s been really good, I still think that was a REALLY soft pen, probably not given at the Emirate
Is the sound really behind the picture on anyone else’s TV?
@Tno, Yeah, definitely is
That was a nailed on 100% penalty. Unquestionable. Sorry, Wac.
@Tno – Yeah it’s not perfect on mine, either.
Soft at best.
Waxtap with a third. I know some of you UFers said you don’t want to play Bayern in the later rounds, but I’d be scared of Waxtap. They are looking good.
Look around the liveblogs. I haven’t seen a single one refer to that penalty as soft or dubious in the slightest. It was a penalty. The end.
Send off was poor, penalty was clear as day.
Granted, Roma is awful and probably the worst team left in the UCL.
@LE, I see literally all penalties in shades of grey, I think his leg was there and Pedro ran into it on purpose. That said, I still have my blinders on, let me see it after the final whistle :)
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Dani Alves is horrible
hahAhahaahaha Alves is a cocksucker.
Ukranian handbags! Now that’s scary handbags.
Oh no Nicky
Need to see replay, but penalty shout?
Bendtner almost scored in pretty much the same way as last year.
Nope, not at all.
That first touch was terrible. There goes your CL hopes. Right there in Nicky’s pink boots.
Nope, just a horrid touch from Bendy and a great tackle from Mascherano
@Steve
the falling down part.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lQrxrf5GI1A&feature=player_detailpage#t=78s
What a throw from Almunia, that was Tim Howard esque…
@Tno – That’s Bendtner’s signature move.
Penalty is running onto contact, and it isn’t a clear goalscoring chance even if you remove the contact. Either way, we’ll never know which team (11 players) deserved to win this match.
Bendtner looks is a gargantuan goof among all those small, purposeful Barca players.
Balls, that wasn’t even the full 4 minutes, but we weren’t gonna win that. The RVP sending off was pretty disgraceful, but I can’t honestly say that we win even with him on the pitch…sure as shit made it easier, but it’s not the end all be all
Yet again, the meteor disappoints
The ref was Massimo Busacca?…more like Bucaca…amirite?
We couldn’t catch a break with a net the size of Madagascar. Manny looked good to stop that shot until it deflected off Sagna and Bendtner really is useless. Wenger should take almost all the blame for not playing Arsenal football for the full 90 though.
Better team won.
Almunia played amazingly well…probably the best stop stopper on the team imo. Also Bendy’s first touch sucks, but we knew that already. All told, I’m happy with the performance (eternal optimist)
*shot stopper, I’m a dumbass
Yeah, that’s about as good of an “I let three past me” performance you could have. Still… fuck.