Dagens Arsenal - 8 April 2009
Wenger
Arsenalmanagern var väldigt nöjd med resultatet efter den tuffa matchen på El Madrigal: "After the first half when they scored an early goal I thought to be 1-0 at half-time that is not bad, as we could re-organise a bit and bounce back and we did that very well. I think what came out of this team tonight, is that we are mentally strong, we are resolute and never give up and they are great qualities at this level. It puts us in a great position, but we want to qualify at home and to repeat the type of performance we did in the second half. We know Villarreal are a good team as well, so we will be on our toes and focused at Emirates.” Angående de olyckliga skadorna på William Gallas och Manuel Almunia och vad detta innebar för matchen så tilllade Wenger: "You basically lose the opportunity to change the game as you only have one player left. You have to leave that as late as possible because if something else happens you play with ten men, so your hands are tied so you could not put a striker on anymore so when we came back to 1-1 we just tried to secure the game." Slutligen passar Wenger på att hylla den inhoppande målvakten Lukasz Fabianski för dennes insats: “I am very pleased at the way Lukasz came on. Despite not even being warmed up he made two great saves. I was just thinking after the game how important it is to have two classy goalkeepers. Unfortunately one of those classy goalkeepers does not get a great number of games. But if you don’t have two good keepers you don’t have a chance at this level.”
En av de tråkigare incidenterna under gårdagens match utspelades när Cesc Fabregas skulle slå en hörna och objekt haglade ner från läktarplats på Arsenals lagkapten. Wenger tillfrågades om incidenten efter matchen: "I saw that there were coins or boxes thrown at him. Certainly UEFA will make an inquiry and make the right decisions."
Spelarna
Vad ska man egentligen säga om Emmanuel Adebayor? Osynlig långa stunder och sedan drar han till med det där målet. Togolesen analyserar själv sin insats: "We knew it would be difficult, and I played against two very high level centre defenders. However, I knew I would get one opportunity and I could seize it. If we play at home as we played tonight in second-half, we should get through." Om just detdär målet så sa Adebayor: "I don't know if it is my most beautiful goal with Arsenal, the one against Tottenham last year was not that bad too. Now we have an opportunity, it is up to us to seize it.”
Togolesen Adebayor får också beröm av den lille engelsmannen Theo Walcott. Enligt Walcott så var Adebayors mål det vackraste han sett: "It was probably one of the best goals I have seen in the Champions League, a special goal from a special player. Hopefully that can spur us on into the next round. It was a great show of character from all the young players. We played some brilliant football as well. However, the job is not yet done. They are a very dangerous team on the break, they pass the ball very well and Senna has got a brilliant shot on him, so we have got to track him down and not let him have those situations again."
Skadeläget
De två skadorna Arsenal drog på sig under gårdagens match är båda allvarliga enligt Arsène Wenger. Om Gallas skada började Wenger: "Gallas has a medial ligament injury. The initial diagnosis doesn't appear to be very positive, but it will be clearer on Wednesday." Och slutligen om Almunia så tilllade Wenger: "As for Almunia it is the second time he has twisted his right ankle, and generally that means a three-week lay-off."
Något bättre nyheter kring Robin van Persie som tros bli spelklar till helgens match mot Wigan. Mer osäkert är det kring Abou Diaby och Eduardo da Silva. Men troligen så missar de helgens match.
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