Glorious Gunners

The dismissal of Jens Lehmann in the Stade de France after just 18 minutes of the final of the Champions League transformed a game which had already begun to live up to its billing as a collector’s piece, a rich encounter between the two most exciting teams in Europe, and demoted it to the level of a mere thriller. But what a thriller!

For 18 minutes Arsenal had dominated the game. Thierry Henry might have scored twice, but both his shot from Eboue’s pass and his effort from the corner of the box were saved by Valdes. Barcelona were visibly shaken by the pace and power of Arsenal’s start and it was not until Eto’o latched on to Ronaldinho’s through ball and was caught by Lehmann that they looked dangerous.

The goal that Eto’o ‘scored’ was disallowed, Norwegian referee Terje Hauge showed Lehmann the red card that the letter of the law demanded and Arsenal’s dream threatened to become a nightmare.

But ‘threatened’ was as far as it went. Reduced to 10 men and without the services of Robert Pires, the Gunners dug in, defended resolutely when they had to and stormed into the lead when Sol Campbell’s header from Thierry Henry’s free kick powered the ball past Valdes before he could move.

For the remainder of the first half and well into the second, they not only clung on but continued to create chances. Hleb shot narrowly wide on 63 minutes, then Freddie Ljungberg forced a brilliant save from the Barcelona keeper and moments later Hleb put Thierry Henry through with only Valdes to beat. Arsenal hearts leapt at the prospect of an improbable 2-0 lead for the 10 men and thoughts began to turn to the Gunners lifting the most cherished club trophy of all.

Six minutes after the pain of that miss, Larrson’s pass found Samuel Eto’o fractionally offside and he squeezed the ball past Almunia at the near post. The inexperienced Norwegian linesman’s flag stayed down and Barcelona embarked upon a lengthy celebration of their ‘equaliser’, the first goal that Arsenal had conceded in an incredible 995 minutes of Champions League football. Except that it wasn’t really a ‘goal’ at all.

Just four minutes later a right foot shot from Belletti which was destined to go wide caught Almunia’s leg and cannoned into the net. It proved to be the winner.

Arsenal came to France to win the Champions League and there was every indication that they would do so, not only in the opening 18 minutes but in the following 58 minutes when they led 1-0, with one hand on the trophy. Tragically, a combination of naivety from a team of Norwegian officials who really should not have been there and two uncharacteristic misses by the best striker in the world robbed them of the historic victory that their magnificent, heroic and epic performance deserved and left them a tantalising 15 minutes from immortality.