Last 16: Arsenal F.C. vs FC Barcelona First Leg 16.02.11

[conorcasey]

deserved defeat for us. before the last 20 minutes, all our players were acting like the game was over. They didn't care and didn't try their best to score. I still don't know how messi missed all these chances. The only good thing about this game is that my prediction was right :)

[LeeRomeno]

slow boring uncreative game, Arsenal played their hearts out, Barca felt like they didnt even want to be there, Messi was frustrated and did much more fouls and showed bad behaviour when he usually does, Villa was sharp on just 1 moment, with rest of times he just lost the ball, Pedro fell over every single time anything close to a chance was given to him, Xavi and Iniesta gave so many bad passes i was at times wondering if they are the real Xavi and Iniesta there, Maxwell got owned several times, Alves did not get owned, but lacked the cooperation he usually has with Messi as i think Pedro was more on right side.
As central defense, Abidal did his best, Pique was sloppy and Valdes was horrible, first goal was at least 50% his fault, i think its textbook goalkeeping that u do not allow shots in from that tight angle, cover it goddamn.
But i am sure we will come around, Pep has never ever won important away games in CL anyways.

[bobo]

Defeat might actually be good for us. 2-1 is something we should be able to turn around if we play the way we usually do.

Also, the way the Arsenal players, fans and Wenger reacted was insane. They seem to be enjoying it a bit too much. We should exploit that.

[IndoCulé]

We have nothing to worry in my opinion. Sure we lost the game but let's not forget we have an away goal rule advantage. I'm not sure about you guys but I'm pretty optimistic we'll qualify to next round. Remember we played badly last year too yet we turned the tide around at Camp Nou. Let's have faith in Pep.

[barcajoe]

one lug loose on a well oiled machine and it looks a little bit clackedy, the lugs were puyol and fitness imo, not huge in them self but enough to ripple through the team on a night with some bad decisions

a little bit off, bad luck, bellow our standard in front of goal, decent sporadic competition.

arsenal could of had 0 to 4 we could of had 0 to 8. any scoreline in between was possible, last nights one was not one we like, ..but we were still the better team, if we won 2-0 which was highly likely barring the linesman, would people say arsenal were robbed ? i doubt it, we weren't worse than arsenal by a goal, we were worse than our own usual standards by 2.

we should still get through unless we are a bit unlucky twice in a row, which would be very unlucky.

[BA6AINEH]

i don't think the result is bad at all .. Arsenal fans are jumping up and down but looking at the match in a rational way .. Barca dominated 90% of the time, had more chances and lost a good few clear chances to score.
I think Arsenal didn't do enough to get them through, all they did is give their fans something to be happy about for two weeks .. I cant see those chances not going in in the Camp Nou and i cant see Barca playing any worse than that in the Camp Nou, they're only gonna look better .. I hope Arsenal think they're on their way through now, coz that will give us an even bigger advantage in the 2nd leg :)

[Smiler]

LMAO at some of the reaction on here.
Yes we lost, I don't know how as we were far superior to them, but for a dodgy offside decision we would have been two up and it would have been game over.

As it was, can anyone believe Messi will miss as many chances as he did last night? And he will get at least that number of chances in the return game.

It was a one off. Arsenals champions league final if you like. A single goal at our place will win the tie. We average 3 at home,so it should be comfortable. Let Arsenal and the English press have their moment of glory, revenge is dish best served cold...

[thomasbeff]

Its fine to say we dominated and that we were the better team but if a team as spineless as Arsenal can come back and beat you like that it really doesn't bode well for the rest of the season. That’s twice in 2 years they’ve achieved this.People are setting themselves up for huge disappointment if they expect a similar performance as last year’s 4-1.

I fear this team bought into the “best team ever” bullsh1t. Their reaction is going to be critical.

[dee08fcb]

What's funny is one of the Sky Sports pundits said Wilshere is better than Xavi. English media and they're bullshit.

who said this ?

[PaBzTa]

What's funny is one of the Sky Sports pundits said Wilshere is better than Xavi. English media and they're bullshit.

who said this ?

Can't remember.
Listen to Talk sport and see how OTT it is now.

[andygoona]

If you think we Arsenal fans think we have won the tie your wrong......we know its only half time and you are at home . The main reason why we are celebrating so much is the way we managed to come back from 0-1 to 2-1 showing a lot of fight and spirit,we got lucky with the "goal" from Messi,true ,but we are very happy that we made a comeback as we are always being told that our team lacks the ability to get results in big matches despite having lots of possesion and chances.
Looking forward to the nou camp.

[IndoCulé]

andygoona, I would like to hear your thoughts on what Wenger's tactics when you visit Camp Nou. Will Arsenal attack or sit and defend?

[Iniesta8]

What do Arsenal fans and Paul McCartney have in common?






They both get excited over one leg

[IndoCulé]

Looking at how fragile our defence is & we lost Valdes for a while (though we have no confirmatuon how long), is anyone worried for the return leg? Or is everyone taking easy and relax?

[Smiler]

Big concern losing possibly both Valdes and Pique. Hopefully Puyol will be back. I still think we'll score at least two goals. If it went to extra time, I'd fancy our game and possesion over Arsenal's and would expect them to run out of steam.