First legs of the Champions League quarterfinals wrapped up tonight in London and Milan in ferocious fashion.
Barcelona was symphonic tonight, yet a resilient Arsenal recovered to seize a 2-2 draw. The gulf in class between the reigning champions and the Londoners was so great tonight, you could have driven a truck through it. And yet, give credit to Arsenal’s character. Whatever their faults — they have many — a lack of heart is not among them.
In Milan, Inter did enough to get a precious 1-0 win over a hard-fouling and tough CSKA Moscow side. Russian critics will round on the performance of ref Howard Webb tonight, who judged the Muscovites harshly, but don’t be surprised if this slim win won’t silence Italian critics either.
Arsenal-Barcelona in one word? Wild.
How Barcelona snatched a draw from a sure win will be chewed over endlessly in Catalonia tonight. This was the most one-sided 2-2 draw this reporter has ever seen. Arsenal should have lost this game 5-0, and even the stoutest fan has to be grinning a bit ruefully at the Gunners’ escape tonight.
Bluntly, Barcelona played the Gunners off the pitch. It’s difficult to win games if you don’t have the ball and Pep Guardiola’s team simply does not allow you to have it.
Using possession to devastating effect, Barcelona went for the throat at the Emirates. To see London’s self-proclaimed players of “beautiful football” humbled in such a manner perhaps won’t surprise the many fans who have questioned manager Arsene Wenger’s insistence on youth over experience.
Enough cannot be said about Barcelona’s midfield. Sergio Busquets, Xavi Hernandez and Seydou Keita played with the ball as if it were surgically attached. In fact, in the first twenty minutes, Arsenal touched the ball just six times, not counting Almunia’s saves.
But that Barcelona could not hang on to a lead shows that the Spaniards have cracks as well. They are so confident that they invite attacks on their goalmouth. Tonight, Arsenal bloodied them for it.
But how?
It’s difficult to explain, but believe me when I say Arsenal overcame remarkable odds. Arsenal lost Andrei Arshavin and William Gallas in the first half to injury, then watched their erratic 'keeper gift Zlatan Ibrahimovic a goal.
Manuel Almunia has come under withering, deserved criticism recently. Saturday, he chucked Kevin Phillips’ strike into his own net, likely costing the Londoners any hope for the title. Tonight, he was heroic, making save after save — and then one of his patented, inexplicably bad decisions, allowing Ibrahimovic to chip him just 22 seconds into the second half. Is this man cursed?
Ibrahimovic would score again just 14 minutes later — this time, without Almunia’s aid — and given the fact that Arsenal never seemed to touch the ball, should have but this tie out of reach.
And yet, when Wenger introduced another controversial figure, Theo Walcott, the game changed.
Walcott, latching on to a pass from Nicklas Bendter somehow slipped the ball under Victor Valdes. Sixteen minutes later, Carles Puyol would be ejected for fouling Cesc Fabregas, allowing the former Barcelona man to sink a penalty kick and tie the game up.
But this wasn’t a game of two halves. What it was was a smash and grab, at home no less.
Barcelona now carries two precious away goals to Camp Nou, but will miss Puyol and Gerard Pique. Arsenal will be without Fabregas and perhaps William Gallas. But picking a winner? This reporter is wiser than that.
It is tempting to say that the Inter-CSKA tie was effectively decided by Howard Webb just 37 minutes into the first leg at the San Siro.
Don't blame the sometimes-pedantic Englishman, however. His decision to show yellow to both Milos Krasic and Evgeni Aldonin, cards while rule them out of the return in Moscow next week, was not out of context on a night when the Russians fouled far too often against a cagey opponent that seemed to know they could bait the trap before going for the jugular.
Inter needed more than an hour to set things alight in the San Siro, producing another of those performances which make you wonder how a team with so much talent can often play with so little imagination. There will be some who lay the blame on Jose Mourinho, believing that he is far more pragmatic than creative, even if the cut of his trademark scarf and accompanying white shirt made him look like he'd worn a tux to the prom.
Naturally, Inter can argue that its approach makes sense, built as it is on the long deliveries from Diego Milito and Wesley Sneijder and the deadly finishing touch of Samuel Eto'o. Why be overly elaborate when the straight-ahead has meant no home defeats in 23 matches this season on the way to what seems a certain fifth consecutive Serie A title?
It all changed in a flash, Milito finishing so nicely in the 65th minute. Just before they scored the Italians had been able to open the game a bit, forcing Igor Akinfeev into a brilliant save before he was finally beaten. Sneijder was now popping up in the box, the CSKA defense was chasing its tail. The switch had been flipped and CSKA, for all of its effort, really had no answer.
By drawing CSKA into a physical chess match Inter seemed to be saying that the goals would eventually come; they were content to keep CSKA chasing, absorbing, and, of course, often having to recover a bit too late or a bit too harshly for Webb to ignore.
Krasic is the heart of the CSKA squad. Not only does he crave the ball in the center of their build-up, his weaving runs through traffic have often brought the best for a team which hardly seems capable of attacking as a unit, so has had to rely heavily on his individuality. Once he was carded Wednesday he faded from the game, leaving the scene a full hour before his suspension will kick in.
While it is hard to see who will take that role next week, it may be foolish to write CSKA completely off; they have spent this entire Champions League doing the unexpected, after all. They attacked so poorly, however, that imagination is required to see them changing stripes in less than seven days.
But, at just 1-0 down, logic be damned, the men who carry the old Soviet Red Army name will think that all is far from lost.
Jamie Trecker is a senior writer for FoxSoccer.com covering the Champions League and European football.
