CL: Arsenal vs Juventus/Juv. vs AFC | 28/03/06 & 05/04/06

[Gazza Martinez]

FFS. That was the first thing I said once I saw the draw. Juve are the archetypal bane of our football. They're brilliant at isolating attackers, forcing them into culdesacs, breaking you down, and hitting you on the break.

Cesc must play, which means the formation we played against Madrid is a must. Vieira has to be pressed by Hleb/Reyes/Freddie whenever he has the ball. Henry will probably struggle to hold the ball up against Cannavaro and Thuram, and ideally you'd want to play two strikers against this Juventus side, but I don't think we can sacrfice it at the expense of the extra midfielder. Juve also won't make anywhere near as many defensive errors as Real, and their midfielders are very efficient with possession when coming out of defense, they won't gift us the ball like Gravesen and Baptista did on countless occassions.

The Werder Bremen matches give me a bit more confidence, as does Nedved being suspended, but Juve are masters of nicking an away goal and rolling over the top of you in Turin. Its going to be very tough...

 

[RocktheCasbah]

Italian commentary during return leg:

...dribbling e cross di Van Persie sulla fascia sinistra, il pallone alto sul quale Buffon non esce, e' preda di Henry che con grande elevazione colpisce e segna dal limite dell'area piccola... GOL!!!!!

zero tre...

ché disastro!!!
ché disastro per Juve...

Wow thats really cool :roll: Lets all show off that we can speak another langauge?! Pointless

And what do you call your little post?

Umm a post :wink:

Look he broke a rule by speaking in a foreign language, then he doesn't translate it and its off topic, simple as that

Listen, matey, I don't need the forum rules explained to me, he was having a little bit of fun, that's all. It's not even like it needed translating, I think it was fairly obvious what he was saying. If anyone has to get all Scroogey about it, it is the moderating team and not you, ok?

 

[sabret00the]

for five years he tried to leave us, then he finally did when we refused to pander to his attention whoredom, he thinks he has a better chance of winning the CL somewhere else, it's our job to ruin that dream for him, it's our job to destroy him. can't wait.

P.S. we need to make sure he picks up a yellow.

And then all sign to the tune of Chic/Nile Rogers - Le freak..

Aaaahhh You're out!
Pa-trick Pa-trick
You'e out!
Aaaahhh You're out!
Pa-trick Pa-trick
You'e out!
Aaaahhh You're out!
Pa-trick Pa-trick
You'e out!

 

[cc]

Italian commentary during return leg:

...dribbling e cross di Van Persie sulla fascia sinistra, il pallone alto sul quale Buffon non esce, e' preda di Henry che con grande elevazione colpisce e segna dal limite dell'area piccola... GOL!!!!!

zero tre...

ché disastro!!!
ché disastro per Juve...

Wow thats really cool :roll: Lets all show off that we can speak another langauge?! Pointless

And what do you call your little post?

Umm a post :wink:

Look he broke a rule by speaking in a foreign language, then he doesn't translate it and its off topic, simple as that

I don't speak Italian, the post is not off topic. On the use of a foreign language... This is from another match report when van Persie turned Inter's defence inside out a few years ago. Just loved to listen to the Italians hyping him up without actually understanding it...

in post match interview, he said he was unsatisfied with his performance because he could have scored 2 more :wink:

 

[clockwork orange]

What Bremen did very well against Juve is putting them under constant pressure: they did not allow the defenders to play an easy ball to the midfielders. Because Italian/Serie A defenders are not used to this, their weaknesses were exposed (technical ability) and they lost a lot of balls in dangerous situations.

 

[Ruslan Matuzau]

Juve is the worst option ever..IMHO, in spite of, **** perfomance they had against Bremen.

 

[Tony Montana]

I'm dissapointed by the draw, not because I don't think we can beat them but because it's going to be so tough. It can go either way but I'm gutted we didn't get Benefica, Ajax/Inter or Villareal. Having said that, they are all decent teams, three of which have held their own against English teams this season.

I fear that our finishing more than anything else will let us down, particularly Reyes and Hleb (on that rare occasion he does shoot). Our defence really is underestimated and that doesn't mean Juve will fail to score, it just means I doubt they'll be having a field day. Despite what people say, Real Madrid played a lot of long balls to Ronaldo which we dealt with very well throughout the second leg. Those type of long balls have been our undoing in the Premiership this season so I hope we are getting better.

We can go through, we just need some luck.

 

[cc]

Listen, matey, I don't need the forum rules explained to me, he was having a little bit of fun, that's all. It's not even like it needed translating, I think it was fairly obvious what he was saying. If anyone has to get all Scroogey about it, it is the moderating team and not you, ok?

I agree with you. but it's fair to label you "dictator" :wink:

 

[Army of Me]

i'm looking forward to, finally get to shove my juventus loving flatmates taunts of "we're going to win the champions league" right up his arse!

come on!

 

[Lehmann1]

Looking forword to it. Good draw. I'm just glad we avoided Barca

 

[famous no 10]

we play juve in the first leg on my birthday. so you know what my brithday wish is gonna be

A blow job?

 

[kiddou]

thanks sienna
who's playing on the same day as us ???

 

[Druid]

I'm confident we can go through! Let's hope the Arsenal supporters give PV a standing ovation so that he will feel very touched, and won't give his all for Juventus.

Lehmann has been in good form recently, so 3-0 to us at Highbury, Lehmann scoring a hat-trick!

................

 

[RocktheCasbah]

Listen, matey, I don't need the forum rules explained to me, he was having a little bit of fun, that's all. It's not even like it needed translating, I think it was fairly obvious what he was saying. If anyone has to get all Scroogey about it, it is the moderating team and not you, ok?

I agree with you. but it's fair to label you "dictator" :wink:

That's what I get for sticking up for Sen(y)or Santiago is it? Comparisons with Stalin, Franco, Mussolini and Hitler.... sheesh!

 

[Sol man]

It was always going to be tought regardless what opposition you have but we have got to have belief in our team. There are no mugs out there at this stage so regardless who you draw there is a good chance that you can lose. Liverpool fans had faith in ther team last season (even so much that they were booking thier trips to Istanbul at this stage of the competition) it is good to see that for once in this forum gunners fans are optimistic.

 

[Tegh]

Excellent.

This is going to be a tough game, but they only just scraped through against Werder Bremen thanks to a goalkeeping howler.

It's going to be lovely to see Vieira back at Highbury, he should get a good reception. Juventus's defense has quality written all over it and the midfield pairing of Vieira and Emerson is very strong indeed. Upfront Ibrahimovic is a danger, but I think if we can keep Real Madrid from scoring, then on our day we can keep anyone (with the exception of Barca perhaps) from scoring. Trezeguet's good in the air, on the ground we should have him kept quiet.

It's going to be two quality games, I sense another 4-5-1 is on the cards.

 

[tgr]

we are the most unlucky team. we play home games first against both juve in quarters and inter in semis.

while barcelona have the most lucky schedule.

but i think we will finally beat barca in paris.

 

[Tegh]

We need RVP fit.

 

[Tony Montana]

we are the most unlucky team. we play home games first against both juve in quarters and inter in semis.

while barcelona have the most lucky schedule.

but i think we will finally beat barca in paris.

that's the way it goes mate.

I'd love winning this competition beating the biggest clubs in Europe. Juventus are one of them.

 

[f4evo]

the robin will take care of juve im predicting
inter i dont think are that good a team to worry about, also their massively overhyped striker shouldnt cause too much concern