Player Ratings - CL: Barcelona vs Arsenal | 17/05/06

[Asterix]

Bloody hell. That sucks, but I'm so proud of the boys. Great fighting effort, just couldn't quite get there.

Jens - 5. Wasn't on long enough, and had to come out, but did he need to pull Eto'o down? Don't know. Hard to judge.
Cole - 8. great covering tackles, got forward a bit too. England should be happy.
Sol - 8. Didn't notice him in defence a lot to be honest, but what a goal.
Kolo - 9. Immense. Fantastic display.
Eboue - 8. We have a real talent here. Kept Ronnie and Eto'o reasonably quiet, and got us our goal.
Freddie - 8. Ran, tackled, got forward. Huge heart.
Cesc - 7.5. Once we went to ten men he was always going to be less effective, but he still held the centre well and got forward when able.
Gilberto - 7. Great defensive effort, and even got forward a bit. Could possibly have found Henry in the second half.
Hleb - 7. Defended well, got down the flanks well. Gave a few passes away.
Pires - 6. Not on long enough.
Henry - 8. We expect him to score those chances. He'll be hugely disappointed with himself. Gave his all though, and can't fault his effort and commitment one shred. the anger we read about yesterday showed itself at the end, but we can forgive him that.

Almunia - 8. Made solid saves, solid in the air. Will be disappointed to have conceded at the near post, but from that distance Eto'o will nearly always score.
Flamini - 6. Ran a lot.
Reyes - 6. Maybe should have been on earlier. Not on long enough.

OUR FANS - 10. F*cking brilliant noise the whole game through.

 

[Lukazan]

Lehmann -
Eboue - 5.5 Dive which disappoints me and there was a moment in the match he got knocked down and literally made 10 or so rolls, cringey to watch. At fault for Barca's first. I also feel Ronaldinho/Eto'o won the battle against him.
Sol - 7.5 Great goal and a really good display. Eto'o turning him easily however, means he misses out on an 8.
Toure - 8 Do I really need to say anything?
Cole - 6.5 Lost the ball cheaply at times but tackled hard and had the desire.
Hleb - 6.5 Decent and played a lovely ball for Henry who should have scored. Period in the second half though where he didn't see the ball for a good 15 mins or so..
Gilberto - 7 Really good first half, average second.
Pires - Not enough time really, but I am pretty sure it was him who blasted the ball needlessly at Hleb which lead to Lehmann's sending off...
Fabregas - 6.5 Mixed I felt. Lost the ball a few times but people have to realise he had absolutely **** all on.
Ljungberg - 8 Passion, heart and fight. Brilliant.
Henry 6 - Knackered despite not really doing all that much tbh, surprising. Should have buried both his chances. His off the ball movement was.. SHOCKING.

Almunia - 6 The 6 is for the brilliant save against Eto. Without that save I'd have given him a 4. Yes he made a few decent stops but nothing a decent keeper wouldn't have been able to handle. I reckon Lehmann would have saved Barca's second goal and maybe, just maybe their first too.
Flamini - No time
Reyes - No time. Shocking how late it was left before he was introduced. With Barca looking for the equaliser we could have done with his extreme pace and stamina to help the defence and chase balls in midfield.

 

[rich300]

Lehmann - 5 - Short evening
Almunia - 6 - Made good saves, but beaten at his near-post, then nutmeg

Eboue - 7 - Made good runs, won lions share of tackles.
Toure - 8 - Rock
Campbell - 8 - Rock
Cole - 7 - Didnt get forward as much as he should have

Hleb - 7 - Worked hard all night
Freddie - 7 - Worked hard all night
Gilberto - 7 - Good display
Fabregas - 6 - Panicked with the ball at times I thought
Pires - 5 - Unlucky

Henry - 7 - Ran until he could barely stand up, but missed two sitters.

Reyes - 5 - Did nothing
Flamini - 5 - We were winning 1-0 when he came on! Nah he didnt do anything wrong

 

[Maximus]

Jens - Cant really make a judgedment on him due to his short apparance
Cole - 6. Didnt play particually well and was out of position several time, moving centrally and leaving a lot of the defensive duties to be done by Freddie
Sol - 8. Sold performance and great goal
Kolo - 9. Our rock
Eboue - 8. Played well but gave away fouls in dangerous positions. Kept Roony and Eto quite for most of the nite
Freddie - 9. Ran his bloddy heart out
Cesc - 6. Didnt have much of an influence or impact on the game but going down to 10 men didnt help. he is such an important link between our attack and defense and once he left the pitch, our attacking outlet was also gone. WRONG MOVE WENGER!!!
Gilberto - 7. Great effort and determination
Hleb - 5. Didnt really do much for me tbh. Can only remember that shot that went to the keepers left hand side. Didnt combine well with eboue
Pires - Only on for a short while
Henry - 8. just a shame he didnt put away his chances but was always a bother to the barca defense

Almunia - 4. At fault for both goals but good save from etos first chance. We now need a class keeper as back up for lehman, this guy has really cost us the chance of winning the european cup!!

 

[hujja]

Re: Champs League Player Ratings

Bloody hell. That sucks, but I'm so proud of the boys. Great fighting effort, just couldn't quite get there.

Jens - 5. Wasn't on long enough, and had to come out, but did he need to pull Eto'o down? Don't know. Hard to judge.
Cole - 8. great covering tackles, got forward a bit too. England should be happy.
Sol - 8. Didn't notice him in defence a lot to be honest, but what a goal.
Kolo - 9. Immense. Fantastic display.
Eboue - 8. We have a real talent here. Kept Ronnie and Eto'o reasonably quiet, and got us our goal.
Freddie - 8. Ran, tackled, got forward. Huge heart.
Cesc - 7.5. Once we went to ten men he was always going to be less effective, but he still held the centre well and got forward when able.
Gilberto - 7. Great defensive effort, and even got forward a bit. Could possibly have found Henry in the second half.
Hleb - 7. Defended well, got down the flanks well. Gave a few passes away.
Pires - 6. Not on long enough.
Henry - 8. We expect him to score those chances. He'll be hugely disappointed with himself. Gave his all though, and can't fault his effort and commitment one shred. the anger we read about yesterday showed itself at the end, but we can forgive him that.

Almunia - 8. Made solid saves, solid in the air. Will be disappointed to have conceded at the near post, but from that distance Eto'o will nearly always score.
Flamini - 6. Ran a lot.
Reyes - 6. Maybe should have been on earlier. Not on long enough.

OUR FANS - 10. F*cking brilliant noise the whole game through.

Agreed.

 

[USArsenal]

i would maybe fault him for their second goal, but the first goal Eto'o pretty much picked his spot.. if he shoots far post, he will score there too..... other than that last goal, i thought he played VERY well given the circumstance....

 

[Emile Heskey's Bitch]

almunia should have saved the first goal. i mean c'mon etoo lined up his shot at the near post, almunia should have been smarter.

the 2nd one went through his legs...poor.

 

[USArsenal]

the first goal was 50/50 at best.... Eto'o was allowed a free route to goal and put it where he wanted to... second goal, cant really defend him.. the only thing i can think of is how wet it was

 

[Gort]

[snipped]
Almunia - 4. At fault for both goals but good save from etos first chance. We now need a class keeper as back up for lehman, this guy has really cost us the chance of winning the european cup!!

You won't get a class keeper playing second fiddle. They'll want first team football elsewhere. I'm not saying we shouldn't go for better than Almunia, but you won't get class.

Ratings...

Lehmann - 5 Didn't have time to prove himself. The foul was one of those things.

Eboue - 6 Did some good moves and did generally well. However, he was skinned a few times by Eto'o once they equalised, which took off a point.

Toure - 8 Played as a rock. Great player.

Campbell - 7 Scored the goal and did generally fine. Did have a few problems, but wasn't a hindrance by any stretch of the imagination. My scepticism about he pre-match was wrong.

Cole - 7 Tended to play quite well. Not exactly the Cole of old, but then again, he was playing against an exceptional team.

Fabregas - 6 Didn't seem to have a good game, but I suppose us being down to ten men didn't help him. However, just before he got subbed, he was involved in a few attacking moves. At the time, I did think that the substitution was right, and although I tend to agree with the reasoning behind it, the five or ten minutes of Fabregas' contribution to the attacks before the substitution sticks in my mind.

Gilberto - 7 Had a good game. Sometimes his passes were astray, but he did make it hard for Barcelona and contributed with some good tackles and breaking up play.

Hleb - 7 I thought he had a good game. He started off strong, but did fade a bit in the second half. Still, even in the second half, he was doing OK.

Pires - 5 Wasn't on enough to show whether he was good or bad. He nearly had a chance, but the pass to him didn't come off.

Ljungberg - 8 Really played well and put in a lot of commitment.

Henry - 6 OK, he missed those chances, but he got himself in the position to start with. He was full of energy, until the last twenty minutes. But, I suppose when down to ten me and being the lone threat up front, it does tend to exhaust you more. I'm disappointed with the missed chances, but that crap happens to the best players. Ronnie had a few opportunities that he fluffed. OK, not exactly like Henry's, but he could himself have done better. Great interview afterwards.

Subs:

Almunia - 6 Pulled off a great save that would have equalised. Did some other good stuff. The two goals were sort of soft, but I think that blaming Almunia for them instead of our defence as a whole, is wrong.

Flamini - 5 Didn't have much of a game to really count. To be fair, he did force the player wide for the second Barcelona goal, making it easier for Almunia to save, even though he didn't.

Reyes - 5 Again, not enough time. I was thinking he should have come on with twenty minutes to go, maybe twenty-five. It's arguable that he should have started. Oh well, being a manager isn't an EA Sports game...

 

[Asterix]

I don't even blame almunia for the second goal. He made himself big, and from that range you simply can't react in time. I thought he did really well. The pressure to come into a Cup Final in that way would be immense, and he handled himself extremely well. He was solid in the air, made a fantastic reflex save, and some solid regulation saves as well.

 

[USArsenal]

i thought he played well given what he was brought in to.. even the commentators on ESPN were saying he was doing a pretty good job...

 

[Emile Heskey's Bitch]

5 goal kicks in a row went for a throw in. there's no time to be nervous in a final, he should have been ready for the job.

 

[USArsenal]

i quite thought he was.. even if goal kicks went to our team, we didnt do much with them when they did come to them.... i though he played quite well and didnt really show any nerves

 

[koivu]

5 goal kicks in a row went for a throw in. there's no time to be nervous in a final, he should have been ready for the job.

How can someone be ready to step into the Champions League final when they haven't even appeared in a Premiership match this season? Playing for our reserves each Monday and playing for the first team week in, week out are two different things.

 

[Rahul]

although both the goals almunia conceeded were actually saveable i would not hold him responsible for our loss nor would i hold henry responsible for missing two chances which he would otherwise score 10 out of 10 times.

 

[kanooo]

although both the goals almunia conceeded were actually saveable i would not hold him responsible for our loss nor would i hold henry responsible for missing two chances which he would otherwise score 10 out of 10 times.

Agreed. Actually, these are the two key points but I don't want to single them out and blame them.

I don't want to do ratings though but the boys gave their all.

I just simply feel gutted. Getting the 4th postion in the league has proven to be very very important now !

 

[cubbz_th14]

under the the 10 men circumstances our game plan changed, and what the players must have gone through is simply crazy, so i really dont want to rate anyone

Arsenal sqad 10/10
Terje Hauge -10/10

 

[Rahul]

although both the goals almunia conceeded were actually saveable i would not hold him responsible for our loss nor would i hold henry responsible for missing two chances which he would otherwise score 10 out of 10 times.

Agreed. Actually, these are the two key points but I don't want to single them out and blame them.

I don't want to do ratings though but the boys gave their all.

I just simply feel gutted. Getting the 4th postion in the league has proven to be very very important now !

Actually when we got 4th place i said to myself hang on a second if we were to do a pool then we had to get 5th place behind spuds[although it would be the most embarrising day in my arsenal supporting span for i have never seen the spuds finish above us]
and then i thought maybe this is not our year then unfortunately enough it came true

 

[Jasper]

Almunia should have done better.

Jens made one mistake that cost us the game. Almunia made two!

I would have preferred Reyes to come on alot sooner. I would have preferred Reyes to start over Pires at the beginning.

 

[kanooo]

although both the goals almunia conceeded were actually saveable i would not hold him responsible for our loss nor would i hold henry responsible for missing two chances which he would otherwise score 10 out of 10 times.

Agreed. Actually, these are the two key points but I don't want to single them out and blame them.

I don't want to do ratings though but the boys gave their all.

I just simply feel gutted. Getting the 4th postion in the league has proven to be very very important now !

Actually when we got 4th place i said to myself hang on a second if we were to do a pool then we had to get 5th place behind spuds[although it would be the most embarrising day in my arsenal supporting span for i have never seen the spuds finish above us]
and then i thought maybe this is not our year then unfortunately enough it came true

Well, before the match, some of us - the gooners were pointing out all these conincidences as fate. I noticed that we've finished 4th while Pool finished 5th last season. I didn't want to point it out but seems that you've noticed that as well.

Too bad. It's just too bad ..