History makers Arsenal and disappointing Madrid

After the first round knock out leg 1 a couple of weeks back, i was highly anticipating the return leg for two matches in particular. Arsenal V Milan was so well positioned for a thrilling second leg at the San Siro after a 0-0 draw at the Emirates. It was Milan all the way in the first leg as this is what Milan does well. They play for a draw in away fixtures and then grind out a win at the San Siro. The defending Champions had done exactly that in the first leg. The cut down the pace of Arsenal's young players and then luck was on their favor also when Adebayor missed almost what was an open header. Interestingly there was a photo of the incident in one of the British newspapers the next day which showed that, there was a strong shirt tug when the Togo man was jumping for the ball.

Arsenal would make history if they were to progress to the quarter finals of the CL. No English team has ever beaten AC Milan at the San Siro in the CL. But as Wenger said before the match Arsenal have defeated Inter Milan here in the same stadium by a huge margin a few years back and indeed it was a confidence building stat. All the big guns were back from injury for Milan, including Kaka and Pirlo. Arsenal also welcomed back Robin Van Persie to the line up but he was on the bench. It was a young Arsenal squad with an average age of 24.1 against an experienced Milan team with an average age of almost 30. You can imagine the daunting task when 20 year old Fabregas goes against Maldini who has made over 175 UEFA appearances and has won 4 CL titles.

I really liked the game because, Arsenal never allowed Milan to force them to drop their pace and was constantly at them. Milan were restricted to some half hearted attempts at goal from long range. Milan are really successful when it gets to the CL because they defend well when they travel, but this performance at home when they need to score to win is beyond comprehension. When the game got to the last 25 minutes it was looked as though Milan would want to play the penalty shoot out. Arsenal on the other hand looked the more desperate for a winner. Finally the much deserved first goal came with 6 minutes left when Fabregas shrugged off Gattusso and placed a superb shot from a long way out to make it 0-1 Arsenal.

Wenger brought in pace and width through Walcott and in stoppage time he managed to stay on his feet after a poor tackle and also squared a nice ball into the penalty box which was tapped in by Adebayor. A superb performance by Arsenal and as Seedorf said after the match they look capable of winning this one. I am not exactly sure about the winning part, but i have a feeling that it is going to be an English side this year and i would personally want Arsenal to win it. Ok my logic does not need any explanation, you have Arsenal, Man U and with Chelsea going through today after their 3-0 thrashing of Olympiakos, it leaves Liverpool who are going to the San Siro next week with a 2-0 advantage to make it 4 English teams in the quarter finals. Inter has the fire power to win by 3 goals for sure and i am not sure about Liverpool even planning on scoring.

My second pick in the first knock out stage was the match at the Santiago Bernabeu which saw Roma return to Madrid with a 2-1 advantage. Madrid did everything right at Roma a couple of weeks back including scoring the priceless away goal but conceded 2 goals and those were the only two opportunities for Roma in the whole game. Real on the other hand had numerous chances to kill the tie.

I have praised the tactics and the team selection of Schuster multiple times in my blog and i do think that he has made changes in the midfield to the one that Capello used to field. He has had his share of problems in selecting a strong team because of injuries, but i am totally confused with the tactics today. Schuster had Van Nistelrooy injured so he resorted to a different midfield. Raul as the lone striker and Robinho who made a cameo come back from injury last weekend against Recreativo was the second striking option. There was Baptista, Gago and Guti in midfield to be joined by Diarra. Sergio Ramos was suspended so in come none other than Michel Salgado. Pepe was back from injury so Heinze moved into a LB role. Roma plays with a lone striker in Totti and a 5 man midfield, yes you have to counter this in tactics, but Madrid needed to score to go through. If Schuster thought that Madrid will hold Roma at bay and make a 1-0 scoreline at the end he needs to have a mental evaluation.

The game had nothing to offer, with Madrid struggling to make the final pass, and to whom? there was just Raul upfront who was being marked superbly by Juan. There were a couple of free kicks from Baptista, one which deflected and was superbly saved by Doni and another which hit the post. Diarra made a long range shot which was again saved by Doni. For Roma it was the same, but of more danger as Aquilani almost score from two superb long range efforts. One hit the bar and the other needed a superb save from Casillas in goal. At half time it was 0-0.

Schuster made no changes at half time. Forget about the attacking options or the midfield, while Heinze was making runs through the left wing and even attempting to put some crosses in and winning some corners, Salgado was having a field day marking Mancini, as it was not Mancini's day. Salgado on the other hand with acres of space to make a run through the right wing always keep passing back to either Gago or Guti. I still don't know what Madrid thought when they sold Cicinho to Roma in the summer because he was superb at RB for the Italians. Not only was he running at Heinze and putting crosses in, he was also defending well against Robinho. Maybe he had a point to prove to his former employers. Maybe age has caught up with Salgado but as a RB you are expected to make some contribution to attack as well. As always it irritates me to see him running back at his own goal when a winger runs at him. Has he even heard of the term "standing tackle". Now this is the guy, a few seasons back was told to be the toughest player in the Madrid squad. Real are thinking of giving Guti a life time contract, which is fair but i hope they don't do the same with Salgado. Salgado had to be replaced by Torres after a thigh strain, and the young Spaniard played well.

Schuster waited till the 60th minute to replace Diarra with Drenthe, and the young Dutchman was already creating moves and spreading the Roma midfield. With Gago doing a superb job, i don't understand the whole point of playing Diarra. He is slow and clumsy on his touches and has a poor pass completion percentage. I had written in my last post on the Recreativo match report that, Real are dangerous when they have two wingers. I dont know why its so difficult for Schuster to see this and in a match where you need to win. I would also think that even if Drenthe was not given the start, he should have put a ST on the pitch to partner Raul. To expect Raul to battle Mexes and Juan on his own is crazy. Why do you have Soldado on your team roster if he plays only 5 minutes in every match?

It was a roller coaster ride from minute 70 when Pepe was sent off after a second yellow card for a stupid body check, marginally outside the penalty box. Roma sprung into action in 2 minutes from the sending off of Pepe, they were in the lead. A counter attack, a cross from the left and Taddei leaped ahead of Heinze who either was ball watching or had lead boots. 0-1 to Roma and 3-1 on aggregate.

In 2 minutes Real responded with some good build up play, from Drenthe on to Guti, who passed it to Robinho who laid it for Raul in the middle who made a nice turn and scored his 61st CL goal. Raul was getting back from an offside position, and it was touch and go to say if he was in line with Mexes, my call is its an Offside. The goal stood and Madrid were even at 1-1 and 3-2 on aggregate.

For 10 men needing to score a goal against an 11 man Italian side, Madrid were giving it all. But in the end it fell short and to rub insult to injury, Vucinic scored in injury time to make it a CL home defeat in some time for Real Madrid. 1-2 the final score, Roma advance to the quarterfinal on a 4-2 aggregate.

I was talking to my friend before the game and i told him, Santiago Bernabeu is not a fortress as many think. Madrid concede a lot of goals, but they score to win. This is the only way they know to play. They are not going to defend and win a midfield battle with the Italians and win by a narrow margin. Its flair, the one touch passing and the attacking mentality, even away from home that makes Madrid the dangerous side. It is alright claiming after the match that "we responded well with 10 men on the pitch", but at half time i knew it was lights out for Madrid. Schuster maybe in his first season at Madrid, and maybe doing well, but he got this one wrong and it was fatal.

When Arsenal created History by being the first English team to beat Milan at the San Siro, Real Madrid followed their history and that is to be knocked out of the CL in the first knock out round for the 4th straight year. Its not statistics befitting a team who has won the most number of CL trophies.