CL: Barcelona vs Arsenal | 17/05/06

[hujja]

Well, they WERE lucky...they were lucky that circumstance was in their favour, and led to our keeper being sent off, so we had to play with 10 men for 70 mins...we were the better team in the first 20 mins with 11 men, and barca s**t themselves everytime Henry had the ball, or we got anywhere near the goal, and still we could have made it 2-0. If anyone other than Lehmann had been sent off, we may have held on, or maybe not.

That's football, it sucks sometimes, but I know now that our team isn't afraid of anyone.

I reckon this should be the post that basically sums up the whole post-match portion of this thread.

 

[Elan Tedronai]

there is only 2 ppl responsible for arsenal losing.

gilberto for that useless pass and then not pressurising ronaldinho.

And ashley cole for making samuel eto onside which led to jens sendoff.

 

[Beany]

Come on, it's not as if someone made a rick, they were bloody knackered. They are humans not robots.

 

[Iniesta]

there is only 2 people responsible for arsenal losing.

gilberto for that useless pass and then not pressurising ronaldinho.

And ashley cole for making samuel eto onside which led to jens sendoff.

and football is team sport. If you go down, it's most often the team to blame ... and if you win, not the guy who scored has won, the team won.

 

[Exiled In Newcastle]

To be honest we need to put 'luck' aside and look at the bigger picture.

Barca are recognised at the best footballing team in Europe (whether you think it's Arsenal or Barca is irrelevent - I'm talking about perception). They are an amazing side and deserve to be regarded as such. Whatever the reasons they ended up winning the pot.

But, when they came to play Arsenal in the final they were worried enough about us to change their game plan to combat us. Barca were wary (I'll not use the word scared but) of The Arsenal.

For nearly an hour they had an extra man without really looking like breaking us down. Whether offside or not their first goal came from a terrible keeping error and without that I don't think the second would have happened.

Basically, our 10 men coped with Barca for an hour.

11v11 no one knows, but I know enough to know we should be amazingly proud of being Arsenal fans and not find silly petty gripes about our opponents. Save them for the ref!

 

[Tony Montana]

And with that excellent post (I especially love the bit about not blaming Barca for our loss), I think this thread should be locked.

 

[Beany]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Arsenal-champions ... dZViewItem

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but one of the secretaries at my office told me about this. Her son's friend (needless to say spu*s fans) lifted this the day after the final.

How I laughed...

 

[Frosty_BCN]

I must insist. A legal denied goal and and receiving another one from a false foul... it's not luck. And it has much more relevance than some normal fouls.

What about an allowed goal from an offside position? Like you're saying it's just meaningless speculation ... but to say Barca had no luck in the 90 minutes would be ludicrous.

The position that got Lehmann sent off isn't the type that happens without luck. Not saying Jens didn't f**k up - IMO he did, but it's not every scoring situation that presents itself to the keeper that way.

First of all, you're talking about one goal, not two, like me. With only this, ref's performance was worst for Barça.

Second, you're talking about the fouls of Puyol and Marquez to Henry which, in the best of cases, could result in yellow card for reiteration. I'm talking about a direct RED card to Eboué, not showed just because Arsenal was playing with 10 players.

but to say Barca had no luck in the 90 minutes would be ludicrous.

To say ref totally favoured Barça and "forget" the BIG advantages for Arsenal is totally hillarious, for the reasons named before. The numbers say it all. Try to be more neutral please.

By the way, there's not still ANY video that demonstrates CLEARLY Eto'o's goal was offside. If the videos aren't clear, just imagine the goal in live, seen by the linier. Totally impossible to appreciate, neither for refs nor for the own Arsenal's players, who didn't protest. In fact, it seems that in the english TV, people like Gullit, Redknapp and Merson said it was a clear goal in that moment. Your own periodists. No need to say, almost, that in case of doubt (and this play generates A LOT) ref ALWAYS must give a goal as legal.

I've readen too that Henry has received some critics from own english press (Niall Quinn, ex-Arsenal player or Matt Lawton from Daily Mail) by blaming too much on the ref. Honestly, If Henry was able to score in his oportunities, this discussion wouldn't take place here. Don't look for another reason to justify the result of the match.

 

[Beany]

And with that excellent post (I especially love the bit about not blaming Barca for our loss), I think this thread should be locked.

I know it's history but hey, it's months to the new season, weeks to the world cup and we need something to vex over...

 

[Exiled In Newcastle]

Frosty - if you can find something nice by Matt lawton about us I'll faint!

Would you accept it if I started quoting the Madrid orientated Spanish papers and their opinions at you? 'Course not. You can't start mentioning articles without knowing the background.

As for the ref, I think Reyes' booking sums it up. The Barca guy fouls him, gets hurt, and Jose gets booked.

 

[Frosty_BCN]

Would you accept it if I started quoting the Madrid orientated Spanish papers and their opinions at you?

Maybe. If I agree with him... AAnd this is the case. I rarelly read pro-Barça press, I know already what they're about to say. I find better to pay more attention to the "other side" to get full information.

You simply can't justify the result of a match only because Barça players made fouls. What are they supposed to do in a final? If you want to emphasize in this and the possible offside of Eto'o (possible, never clear as somebody says here), you can't act like ref's mistakes in favour of Arsenal didn't exist (need to name'em again?), and say ref was with Barça, because it's not true.

 

[Exiled In Newcastle]

I read the French press after the game (biased?) and to be fair they all thought the ref was far too biased towards you.

Yes he made mistakes in our favour as well but there was a long period in the game where we were up against it and every decission was going your way. Mate, even Barca fans I talked to on the night were greatful for the ref.

 

[Frosty_BCN]

Which team took the worst part is something hard to quantify for us and for all, but The biggest mistakes went by far against Barça.

One red card not showed to Eboué because lehmann was already out.

One legal goal denied.

Eboue dives and Arsenal scores whit that foul.

All the mistakes against Arsenal haven't more direct impact on the result than these three. The ref simply was a disaster for the entire game and both teams, and didn't know how to compensate one mistake after all. This is a fact, but not enough to justify the result, even if Barça lost the game. It could happen anything, with 11-11 or 11-10, but Barça took profit of their chances and Arsenal didn't; the ref had nothing to see there.

 

[Tony Montana]

First of all, you're talking about one goal, not two, like me. With only this, ref's performance was worst for Barça.

Second, you're talking about the fouls of Puyol and Marquez to Henry which, in the best of cases, could result in yellow card for reiteration. I'm talking about a direct RED card to Eboué, not showed just because Arsenal was playing with 10 players.

but to say Barca had no luck in the 90 minutes would be ludicrous.

To say ref totally favoured Barça and "forget" the BIG advantages for Arsenal is totally hillarious, for the reasons named before. The numbers say it all. Try to be more neutral please.

By the way, there's not still ANY video that demonstrates CLEARLY Eto'o's goal was offside. If the videos aren't clear, just imagine the goal in live, seen by the linier. Totally impossible to appreciate, neither for refs nor for the own Arsenal's players, who didn't protest. In fact, it seems that in the english TV, people like Gullit, Redknapp and Merson said it was a clear goal in that moment. Your own periodists. No need to say, almost, that in case of doubt (and this play generates A LOT) ref ALWAYS must give a goal as legal.

I've readen too that Henry has received some critics from own english press (Niall Quinn, ex-Arsenal player or Matt Lawton from Daily Mail) by blaming too much on the ref. Honestly, If Henry was able to score in his oportunities, this discussion wouldn't take place here. Don't look for another reason to justify the result of the match.

I've been saying this for a long time but I think that's how people want to deal with the effects of our loss. The goal was onside as people on Skysports said but there is a big hullabaloo about Eto'o's goal being offside. Anyway, the ref was biased towards you for large parts of the game.

 

[IBL]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Arsenal-champions-league-victory-parade-sign_W0QQitemZ8814515730QQcategoryZ2885QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Sorry to go off on a tangent, but one of the secretaries at my office told me about this. Her son's friend (needless to say spu*s fans) lifted this the day after the final.

How I laughed...

someone with an iffy ebay account please put in a few ridiculously high bids (somewhere in region of millions of pounds)

 

[cubbz_th14]

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Arsenal-champions-league-victory-parade-sign_W0QQitemZ8814515730QQcategoryZ2885QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
Sorry to go off on a tangent, but one of the secretaries at my office told me about this. Her son's friend (needless to say spu*s fans) lifted this the day after the final.
How I laughed...

someone with an iffy ebay account please put in a few ridiculously high bids (somewhere in region of millions of pounds)

dont worry mate ... im on it .. i will try my best to win and send him a handmade cheque 'Bank of Arsenal' in favor of " A Sorry Jelous Tottenham ****" **** Off ! Kind regards :evil:

 

[IBL]

^hehe, that would be grand!

 

[GuNNerZ4LiFe]

The same ref that gave W. Bridge a direct red when you played Chelsea????? whatever man u say the ref was more biased towards u, but he knew that giving Lehman a straight red would see us struggle the whole game.

A straight red for Eboue???? your crazy man. If thats the case Marquez shoulda had like 5 red cards by the end of the day.

Whatever I dont see why u barc fans are at arsenal-mania.com trynna prove you won fairly.

 

[Iniesta]

Eboue should have gotten red. Such fouls can't be accepted in football.

but i'm going to quit this discussion. Whatever we say about the ref, you guys won't accept, and vice versa...

But i think we all can say, the ref was sheit. glad he's not coming to the WC.

 

[Feanor]

Hey Guys, we lost. Get over it. By the rules, the decision to send Jens off was correct. 10 vs. 11 we played very well and had chances. By *****ing and moaning about being cheated, we sound like *****-yo and Chelski. Barca beat us, we lost. It hurts like hell but we had one hell of a run during our tranisition season, our team is hungry, our fans hungry (hungry not angry) so let's talk about the summer moves and next season. If anyone other than Arseanl had to win the CL, I can't think of a better team than Barca. Stop the *****ing, stop the bitterness, it's time to move on. BTW Iniesta, thanks for your comments, you've been very civil and courteous. I think it's time to lock this thread and move on.