Arsenal 2 Barcelona 1

And so finally, finally the dragon was slayed at the fourth time of asking. Arsene Wenger finally beat Barcelona at the fourth attempt last night as his substitutions inspired a late fightback that turned the tables against Spain’s best.
It lived up to expectations as a feast of footballing delicacies. All the trickery and polished passing of Barcelona was on display at the Emirates in this eagerly-awaited Round of 16 clash.
Unlike last year though when the Catalans came visiting and silenced 60,000 fans with breathtaking artistry, this time it took them a while to get into their groove.
Arsenal started like the proverbial house on fire, using the pace of Theo Walcott to get behind Barcelona’s backline. On one occasion, Walcott evaded four tackles on the edge of the box and though his final ball eventually came to nought, the early signs were good that the Spanish were in for a difficult time.
Not so soon though. The visitors regrouped and set about their task with their usual precision. Lionel Messi, slippery and evasive as ever soon began his conjurer’s act. By the 20th minute mark, he almost struck as his toe-poked effort beat Wojniech Szczesny but trickled agonisingly beyond the far post when every pair of eyes in the stadium believed it was heading for the back of the net. Relief for all Gunners couldn’t be more welcome.
Undaunted, the Barcelona ensemble continued to dictate the pace and gradually took over possession. Already, the early yellow card to Alex Song restricted the presence of the holding midfielder, allowing the pair of Andre Iniesta and Xavi to enjoy more and more space in the middle.
Their endeavour finally paid off in the 26th minute when Song failed to close down Messi and the little Argentine prodded the ball into the path of David Villa. The dangerous Number 9 took it in his stride and further helped it on its way; between the legs of the exposed Szczesny for the opening goal.
Every Gunner feared the worst, or at least a repeat of last year’s capitulation.
It proved unfounded as we resisted until the halftime whistle. On resumption, we came out quicker from the blocks as Jack Wilshire began to assert his presence and much-trumpeted abilities. It was a different Arsenal that seized the initiative from the Spaniards as we enjoyed more possession and drove forward at every opportunity.
Robin Van Persie became more and more prominent upfront and Barcelona’s defence set-up of Gerard Pique and Maxwell suddenly had their work cut out for them.
Despite our increased presence on the ball, Barcelona were doing a pretty good job of containment and it could be said as the game frittered into its latter stages, that the visitors would comfortably escape with a lone goal lead.
Until a five-minute salvo that changed the face of the game and increased the decibels inside the packed Emirates.
Firstly, newly-introduced Andrei Arshavin - on for Song - received the ball at the near byline and fed the overlapping Gael Clichy. The fullback lifted the ball into the path of the persevering Van Persie and as the Dutchman strode with determination towards the goal byline, not many in the stadium saw any tangible end result for the move.
Not many indeed, excluding Van Persie. He glimpsed a small swathe of space between Victor Valdes and the near post and it was in there that he blasted the ball with all the pent-up frustration of the night. It was a goal of supreme risk and determination. How well he celebrated. How much it meant to the massed army of Gunners all waving red flags and scarves declaring their avowed love for their hungry club.
The second goal arrived to greater excitement five minutes later when Samir finally found himself free on the right side. With all the time in the world, he angled and measured a pass into the path of fast-advancing Arshavin, who took the ball first time and swept it into the bottom corner beyond the reach of Valdes and his massed defenders who were all caught in a frantic retreat.
Barcelona threatened a late response through the irrepressible Messi, but the impressive Johann Djourou and Laurent Koscielny snuffed out everything they could conjure.
The celebrations at the final whistle were full-blooded even though we all acknowledge that it is though a job well done, it was still halftime in 180 minute contest.
Guardiola, Barcelona’s ever- demanding coach, summarised it in typical style:

“In general, I’m happy with the performance – the result is the thing I don’t like”.


His counterpart, the relieved Arsene Wenger naturally had more words and more reason to expand on the outcome of a crucial victory:

”I’m very proud for Arsenal tonight. Everybody urged us to play differently to our nature and this result will strengthen the belief in our philosophy. We needed to score two goals. I just took the gamble – it could have backfired to 2-0 or 3-0, but it worked”.


Indeed it worked well. We wait till March 8 for the return leg to know if those goals will be enough to see us through to the quarterfinals. With last night’s fighting spirit though, anything is possible for this Arsenal side now.


Ratings: Szszesny 7, Djourou 7, Koscielny 7, Clichy 7, Song 6, Eboue 6, Wilshire 8, Nasri 6, Fabregas 6, Van Persie 7, Walcott 6, Arshavin 7, Bendtner 5.