For a side whose reputation has been built upon the beautiful game, this was Arsenal’s version of “winning ugly”.Of course, Arsène Wenger’s side only drew in Porto on Wednesday night but the point was enough to send them through as the winners of Group G.Both teams came into the game well aware that a stalemate would see them progress — no matter what CSKA Moscow could do at Hamburg. That fact seemed to hang over the game for the entire 90 minutes.
Jens Lehmann had few real alarms. They came for a point and got it.Wenger was already without Thierry Henry through suspension and, somewhat surprisingly, chose to leave another striker, Robin van Persie, on the bench. Emmanuel Adebayor was asked to plough a lone furrow up front and Mathieu Flamini was brought in to bolster the midfield.The move was inspired by the fact Arsenal only needed a draw to win the group.
The visitors created a promising opening in the dying seconds of the half. Fabregas fed Hleb in the right hand channel. The Belarus international got to the byline but his cut back was cut out.Three minutes after the restart Quaresma’s low shot rebound back off the base of the post.
Fabregas curled a free kick into the hands of Porto keeper Helton a few minutes later. The second half was certainly more lively than the first. The game was more stretched and there were openings for both sides. Neither took them.
CSKA had trailed in Hamburg early on but, midway through the half, the Russian side were in front. It meant a positive result here would send the victor top and the loser out.If this was communicated to the players then it would only turn a cautious game into a virtually paranoid one. Certainly the last few minutes petered out into nothing.
But, ultimately, at the full time whistle both sides had got what they wanted. Porto were through and Arsenal were top.
Starting Line ups:
Arsenal:
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- Jens Lehmann
- Gael Clichy
- Johan Djourou
- Emmanuel Eboue
- Kolo Toure
- Francesc Fabregas
- Mathieu Flamini
- Gilberto
- Fredrik Ljungberg
- Alexander Hleb
- Emmanuel Adebayor
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- da Helton
- Eduardo Bruno Alves
- Kleper Pepe
- Jorge Fucile
- Silva Paulo Assuncao
- Lucho Gonzalez
- Jose Raul Meireles
- José Bosingwa
- Ricardo Quaresma
- Lisandro Lopez
- Helder Postiga
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