Well, that’s it–Arsenal's through to the Champions League with room to spare (5-1 on aggregate). Several things to talk about in this one, so let’s dive right in.
I suppose there’s no choice but to start by talking about Eduardo’s penalty. It was absolutely not a penalty, and absolutely a dive. I like Eduardo, but I won’t mince words–he should be ashamed of himself. Diving is cheating, and does a lot to undermine the integrity of the game. And if I’m going to criticize Gerrard and Drogba for doing it (which I do), I’ve got to be even-handed about it. I hate seeing it, and I especially hate seeing it from someone on my club. I hated it when Eboue used to do it on a regular basis, and I hated seeing Eduardo do it today. And I won’t defend it or justify it.
But. Having said that, I think it’s pretty unrealistic and naive to suggest that it really had a dramatic impact on the tie. We had a 2 goal advantage and we were playing at home against a team which has been pretty dreadful about scoring and getting results away in European competition. We were in control of the match from start to finish, and we were going to move on to the group stages whether Eduardo gets the penalty call or not. It’s as simple as that. So I’m not particularly interested in blindly naive theories about how it “changed the course of the tie” or some other such nonsense, which the announcers wouldn’t shut up about.
We created a bunch of chances, and could have scored 5 or 6 if it weren’t for Artur Boruc, who showed himself to be a world-class keeper today. Celtic hardly tested our backline, and I don’t remember Almunia being really tested at all.
The second goal was a superb team effort, with Eboue finishing the move nicely. It capped a good game for Eboue, and the goal was deserved. Arshavin came on and made a brilliant move to get the ball far enough away from a defender to get an accurate shot off by Boruc. Celtic midfielder Massimo Donati then scored a pretty amazing goal to pull one back in injury time.
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