Arsenal qualified for the knock-out stages of the Champions League with a hard fought 2-1 win over Borussia Dortmund this evening.
The first half was a scrappy affair with both teams cancelling each other out for the most part. Neither side was able to maintain possession for long periods. Arsenal struggled to hold onto it as Dortmund pressed high up the pitch at all times, while the German side were happy to sit back and try and catch Arsenal on the break.
Dortmund were dealt two first half injury blows. After a clash with Thomas Vermaelen’s heel left him bleeding heavily, Dortmund were forced to pull off Bender, and a few moments later they lost Gotze, leaving a big hole in the team.
Arsenal had the ball in the net in the 41st minute but Theo Walcott’s run was just too early and he was rightly given offside by the linesman. A few moments later great work between Walcott and Arteta saw the England international whip in a great cross towards Robin van Persie at the back post but Weidenfeller just got a hand to it to prevent the chance.
The German side started the second half very brightly, twice causing danger for the Arsenal defence, especially when Kagawa found himself with a clear sight of goal. His angle was tight, however, and Szczesny made the save easily enough.
Arsenal then took the lead through Robin van Persie. The captain may get all the plaudits for his goalscoring but Alex Song deserves huge credit for setting up the chance. He drove down the left hand side, showed quick feet to leave two Dortmund defenders in his wake and van Persie headed in the cross despite Weidenfeller getting a touch. 1-0 Arsenal.
The Gunners should have been 2-0 up when Ramsey played Gervinho clean through. The Ivorian showed he still has to work on his compsure and decision making in these positions and as he tried to make his mind up the Dortmund defenders got back and snuffed out the chance.
The game got a bit tense with some bookings. Schmeldzer was involved in an incident with Ramsey and then booked for a foul on Walcott, while Theo got booked for fronting up to a linesman rather too vigorously.
Arsenal brought on Benayoun for Gervinho and the Israeli almost found his way through but it was an old fashioned Arsenal goal that sealed the points. When an Arteta free kick deflected off the wall and out for a corner the Spaniard fizzed it into the near post, Vermaelen flicked it on like a common Steve Bould and van Persie was waiting at the back post for the simple finish to make it 2-0.
We blotted our defensive copybook late on when Song and Djourou conspired to give the ball away near our corner flag, resulting in a late Dortmund goal, but there was no time for the visitors to get another. A clean sheet would have been nice, as we defended very well – Andre Santos in particular had a very effective night – but a clean sheet wasn’t the important thing.
It was a hard fought victory but one that Arsenal deserved. It means we top the group, become the first English side to qualify for the knock-out stages, and that we can rest players and enjoy the trip to Olympiacos (who beat Marseille).
Overall, a pleasing night.
Great win! Anyone else slughtly disturbed by the amount of leg rubbing Steve McClaren was handing out on the panel?
First
Damn
Well since you’re second actually I’ll attach this chat to your comment.. Can’t get enough of it 🙂
He’s skilled
He’s Dutch
He scores with his first touch
He has no mercy
He’s Robin van Persie !! 😀
Also satisfied with the rest of the team. 🙂
COYG
*chant ( obviously )… 😀
Has this chant been used at the Emirates yet? Because it needs to be!
“Forced to pull off Bender” – Are you being paid by the double entendre?
My God Alex Song’s setup on the first goal was stunning.
It was something you’d expect to see in a highlights video of Lionel Messi on YouTube. It really was brilliant. He has added extra parts to his game over the past year and is more than just a defensive midfielder now.
Agreed. His work rate is so good he’s managed both to do his job as a defensive midfielder and get forward and help the attack as well. An invaluable player as far as I’m concerned.
Nice cross. The rest was pure luck. We won the group though!!!!!! Fuck ya!!! Ooooo to be a…………….
Pure luck?…. are u a surrender monkey in disguise?
Great win !!!
Thank you ARSENAL
How GOOD was Song tonight?
(Apart from giving the ball away at the end but we’ll forgive him for that!)
Job well done & now we can take it easy in Greece…COYG!
Song was massive. Always in the right place and several times despite looking caught in possession just bossed his way out. MOTM for me.
I actually thought he made some poor passes throughout the match but he was always there to cover when needed and his feet on that run were sublime.
I actually think it was JD that lost the ball as he presented it to the Dortmund attackers. If you watch again you will see that he is the last Gunner to touch the ball before the opposition get it.
“Club in crisis” marches on .. Go Gunners..!!
“Club in Crisis” Becomes the first club to qualify for the next round AND finishes top of their group while the rest of the English teams are currently in third place of their respective groups.
Song was awesome tonight. Walcott is now consistently posing problems to opponents. Our defence, even in its ‘make shift’ form, is looking increasingly solid. And Finally in Robin Van Persie we currently have the best striker in the world at the moment!
Remember the one-twos he played with RVP and decided to cross with his first touch ,and cross was fucking excellent ,it was swinging and very fast and accurate ,too bad it couldn’t reach Zhervinhyo
Great game to watch… Respect to Borussia Dortmund… Great side… I wanted to see more of the Super Mario, could have been a mouth watering contest but Arsenal took the game in the second half… Song was a monster in defense and i think he is the most skilful defensive midfielder in Europe. Nobody make a 360 turn against Farcelona and gets away with it and now he showed his nutmegging skills once again. RVP counts only in twos… Again a brace for the skipper… Vermaelen was immense and rightly gave an earful to Djourou and Song for that goal…… Read more »
We go through as group winners, the Chavs lose in the last minute and the Spuds watch Corrie, perfect.
I love santos purely because he does that little bit of skill/touch that neither clichy or cole dared to do, the amount of oooooohhhhsss that went out around the crowd when he did a deft touch or flick to completely turn a defender was immense. Benayoun skilled two defenders aswell. But whT to say about song, counting the defender he muscled out the way when he first got it he went past 4 defenderS in that dribble!
Santos has the skills of Neymar! He was styling all over the park tonight, great performance from him I thought (also I note he is looking a lot more trim). COYG
Just like our other new FB, he is learning the Arsene way to play the position.
Re Santos, I also noticed the second chin that was forming has receeded…looking fitter. Lets hope he’s not taking his wifes’ slimming pills.
On another note, Imagine how le cunt must feel.
Cream will always rise to the tippy top.
And full respect to the Dortmund fans who were loud and i just get goosebumps when that Arsenal FC chant starts and buzzes loud through my TV speakers. I like Jurgen Klopp, humble and you should have seen how sportingly he greeted RVP after the match. German version of Wenger :p Now looking forward to the Fulham game….
“…and a few moments later they lost Gotze, leaving a big hole in the team.”
*sniggers*
..What is that man doing to his midfield?
what’s the deal here? Two Merlin’s now eh? hmmm…
Looks like we managed to stay tight and didn’t let them penetrate us. No one wants to let them in behind, especially Bender, he loves to penetrate the back.
sorry.
Who needs Fabregas when we’ve got Song?
Did you just make a comment that didn’t get downvoted to oblivion? Fatgooner, my congratulations!
Like I’ve said before: even though I can be very critical, I will always give fulsome praise when it’s deserved. Song’s piece of skill for the first Van Persie goal was sublime. Had Messi done that last night the media would have been going crazy.
Song was brilliant last night (I forgive him for what he did in that last minute) and that assist was the highlight.
Great player; great night!
Can’t give this team enough credit for the turnaround. Love em all for their collective giveashitedness.
Agreed.
The dumb cunts on RTE (Irish TV station) gave our boys no credit. Said we have no hope….shit players….and RVP imintently leaving the club with Wilshere hot on his heels. This all the while the commentator repeatedly mixed up our players names and even a few times credited you Jack Wilshere with a shot or tackle!! Makes me so fucking angry!!!
I can’t wait for the Arsenal to prove all these cunts wrong. I’m heading down bookies to put a tenner on our boys winning EPL and CL.
Surely we must be the most in-form team in Europe?
You’re right there. RTE are just a bunch of ManUre and Liverpool loving cunts. Ray Houghton didn’t stop bitching about us from the kick off, and that fucking spaso ‘commentating’ couldn’t distinguish between Aaron Ramsay and Jack Wilshere. An easy mistake to make seeing as how only one of them was on the pitch – you stupid dumb fucking prick. As for the panel, when I saw Chippy wasn’t there, I switched the fuckers off. They hate Wenger, but love to wank themselves – and each other – off at the mere mention of that glorified alco in charge at… Read more »
I now watch matches muted. If you can handle it, you will find that what you mostly remember is/are the positive aspects/events of the team/game.
Shit speakers shall not ruin my experience or taint my memories. They seem to gobble up each others’ shite and spew it back out repeatedly. So often, they must have to demonstrate how much they hate AFC before being hired.
Think Barca are unbeaten in 25 – all comps.
Dortmund proved to be a real test. Amazing MOTM performance from Alex Song. Theo and Kosc also had particularly good games as well. Great to carry on this great form during the CRISIS.
whats that. only Arsenal are through to the knockout stages. who would of thought that at the start of the season. you other 3 need to pull your fingers out to bring some pride to English football. Actually dont so us gooners can have a fucking big laugh at you guys with all the money
Song for Ballon d’Or!
I’m at work and had to watch on SkyGo on my colleague’s iPhone…he’s a spud & he’s banned me from borrowing it again…you’ve gotta love em!!!COYG!!!
Excellent win, through to the next round and top of the group! Very good team performance and that late blunder aside we were on top even when under pressure in the first half, the team didn’t implode – something our teams of seasons gone by were prone to doing. Overall, it’s great to see Chelsea, and the two Mancs struggle for all their ‘investing in the squad/showing ambition’. Though it seems unlikely, it’s quite possible that those 3 teams could end up in the Europa league this season! Happy days! COYG! Oh and it just occurred to me how if… Read more »
Excellent result and second half performance. As a sidenote I thought Ramsey’s booking was one of the most senseless yellow cards I’ve ever seen.
ref did get a little trigger happy with the yellow in the 2nd half. Theos was also a joke.
I agree he got very trigger happy, and first off i thought the yellow on benayoun was extremely harsh and was stunned when he didn’t give the cunt that took out Kos 2 minutes later even a bloody foul
Theo deserved his for fronting up to a linesman for no reason at all. I don’t like when he does that, seems a bit cowardly.
Definitely pleased we can give the first team a rest in Greece. Likes of AOC and coquelin will benefit from that kind of atmosphere.
Olympiacos are even noisier than Dortmund , That should improve their ‘Mental Strength’ and ‘Mental Elegance’
We don’t need Batman; we’ve got Robin and we only need one Song (another wouldn’t hurt either). I’d venture to claim that corner is being turned rather nicely now and may we continue to turn it like Rosicky does his turns away from markers. Good to see Diaby getting some game time too.
Just loved the way all eleven Gunners hunted the ball for 90 minutes. Hardly recognizable from the first leg at Dortmund. Not one poor performance from a red shirt. Well done.
“hunted the ball”….great choice of phrase to describe the team’s attitude. To be fair to Dortmund, that description also applied to them for an hour or so. We’ve taken four out of six points from a team that harried and pressed Bayern Munich into oblivion just a few days before….job well done.
Great win! Song was a ROCK yet again, Santos had a good game and RVP is RVP.
No doubt the media will say that it was because of Dortmund’s injuries in the first half. Maybe, maybe not, but we’ve had injuries to key players a lot in recent years and have been shown little or no sympathy so I wont bother to care about that.
Would have been nice with a clean sheet, but as long as we’re winning I’m not gonna complain.
Was Theos yellow card, only the second of his Arsenal career?
Were you watching Alan Mullery, you gormless prick?
Diaby on the pitch for 5 seconds and we score, welcome back.
unintentional thumbs down mate. mea culpa. was going to add, djourou on for 5 seconds and they score. unlucky. Don’t think that would have gone down had Kos still been in. He was gassed though. What a shift he put in.
Yeah, Kos was brilliant. when was the last time you think he ran 10 km? haha
Any chance Arsenalist can make the clips work on an iPhone??!!
you could always just get the Arsenal app. They do the 2 minute clips on the Arsenal player there the next day. I think it cost about a fiver or something but it’s good if you’ve missed things.
Was at Ashburton (to add to earlier comment) loving the never say die spirit. Confidence running through crowd. Back to the old skool!
I’d 8-2 be the only English club left in the UCL in 2 weeks! Love it, Song was MOTM tonight! Keep it comming Arsenal!
Just got back home from game great team performance again and the Dortmund fans were unbelievable throughout 7000 of the fuckers, congrats to them to top top fans.
I was set to win £225 till that consolation went in. I hate it when they sleep. 100% commitment all the time please. It can’t be that hard for 50grand a week. Great game tho boys!
At the moment everyone is playing really well, even Benayoon looked good when he came on. Who else could’ve turned our fortunes around than AW. In Arsene we trust, what a legend!
I loved the verminator. You try and tackle him, you’ll end up on a stretcher biatch
I’m going to go out on a limb and say this team is turning out to be – collectively – the best team I’ve seen since Bobby, Thierry and Dennis were pulling on the colours. They look like they fit which is something I’ve not been able to say for years.
So far I’m being proved wrong about my earlier comments (mid crisis comments that is) and you know what, never has humble pie tasted so good.
Song for MoM in my book. His run for the first goal was one of the best I’ve seen, especially for a ‘defensive’ midfielder. How many aggressive tackles did he time perfectly to avoid a foul and win the ball?
Very cool that we fielded 13 different nationalities today, and they seem to be united as one.
Just wanted to say that i was privileged enough to see tonights game in a box tonight…but was sorely disappointed by the support…i was actually physically attacked by another apparent arsenal fan for standing up and trying to chant and support the arsenal…
on to the match…song and santos were excellent…and ramsey was forcing his involvement all game…obv cant disregard RVP…he cant leave with the reverence all arsenal fans have for him
Hey Rowan, I too have been privileged to be at the Box seat before, and trust me they are a bunch of quite, money grabbing people, the area is set up for the rich and grand companies, so they just seat there admiring the stadium without singing… Quite sad to see, but I guess that’s what football has turned to, MONEY!
Song was again massive for us. He really does the dirty jobs neatly.
Definately MoTM in spite of the avoidable error. Got so angry with himself that he booted the ball out of the emirate. Doubt if that ball will ever be found!
Great team effort.
thumbs down! You obviously did not see Song kick the ball at final whistle. Go see it if you can.
our captain is so badass !!!
Wow, it feels like the Udinese games are so far away. they looked a pretty solid team and given the state our team was in at that time, i wasn’t 100% confident we would qualify to the group stages.
Now look at us, 1st english team through, on top of arguably the toughest group of teams in these stages. I’m a proud gooner.
Game after game after game, Alexandre Song is at war for The Arsenal!!! He doesn’t take any credit for his outstanding performances, just puts in the work work work. I love his dedication. That’s what a great rolemodel is all about!
ALEX 4 PRESIDENT
GO GOONERS!!!!
I’m surprised nobody has mentioned Arteta. I thought he was brilliant. Nothing fancy but he was always in the right place breaking up their play and linking ours. Also I loved that stat in the back of the program – most passes per 90 minutes of any player in the prem.
[…] highlights and reaction – Match report […]
What a great night, that was the first Champions League match I’ve got to this year, still glowing even if my head feels a bit mushy this morning. Agree with the above sentiments I thought to a man the team put in a real shift and looked like exactly that… a team. Well done lads, roll on Munich in May.
Arsene Wenger- that’ll be all.
ahhh… and relax.
Great stuff Arsenal. Song is looking brilliant. Two assists in two games for a DM is brilliant. The whole team was excellent actually.
I love it when we can afford to rest players and give some of the others a go in the CL.
We should get to see more of Park, the Ox, maybe CoqPong, Benayoun, Diaby, Miquel and so on against Olympiakos. Well done Arsenal. Proved all the cunty media wrong AGAIN so far this season. Keep it up.
Between these 2 left wingers – Eden Hazard n Alex Song – which one would you love to buy? For me Song 89 out of 9m times. Just at that last minute will I give Hazard a look. Everybody is delirious with happiness and so am I. Should be easy to pardon me for thinking Song a left winger then. And that Andre Santos guy…where the hell did Wenger steal him from. We’ve got to go back there for some more mining. Just dont show the city our little mine. Amazing team performance both in defence and attack. Great win… Read more »
i thought you were insulting us, but then i realised. heh.
Did anyone notice?
11 different nationalities in starting team.
first 2 subs from 2 different countries.
Only Diaby made a French double
How cool is that?