6 December 2006
PORTO 0-0 ARSENAL
Porto's potential last 16 opponents : Barcelona, Inter, PSV, Roma, Real Madrid, Celtic, Lille
With no other Portuguese teams in the last 16 Porto draw the short end of the stick
Arsenal's potential last 16 opponents : Bayern Munich, Valencia, Lyon, Milan
Arsenal will want to avoid Lyon.
Attendance : 41,500
Assist : n/a
HAMBURG 3-2 CSKA MOSCOW
Atouba conceded a penalty with a stupid challenge on Krasic allowing Olic to give CSKA the lead against the run of play. Berisha walked the ball in at the back post from a deflected corner and Hamburg celebrated as if they had won the tournament. Zhirkov scored one of the goals of the tournament. Standing on the half way line on the left flank with his back to play he flicked a pass towards Berezutskiy as he turned, Berezutskiy chested the ball down, Zhirkov flicked it over Laas, headed it down, bounced it off his thigh and as he approached Reinhardt poked it past him then pushed the ball away from Atouba, as the former Spurs midfielder snapped into a tackle, before slotting past the advancing Wachter. Absolutely brilliant. Van der Vaart blasted Hamburg level after the massed ranks of the CSKA defence failed to deal with a throw in. In the last minute Van der Vaart sent a long ball upto Sanogo and, having just stayed onside, he took the ball on his chest before ramming it into the roof of the net.
Attendance : 46,000
Red Card : Atouba 69 (Hamburg)
Assists : Krasic (won pen), n/a, Berezutskiy, n/a, Van der Vaart
21 November 2006
ARSENAL 3-1 HAMBURG
Not for the first time this season Arsenal fell behind at their state of the art new stadium. Flamini understandably bottled out of a challenge for a loose ball with the imposing Sanogo, Mahdavikia hooked the ball to van der Vaart who feigned to shoot with his left foot, taking out Eboue and Flamini in the process, before whipping a right foot shot over Lehmann in off the underside of the crossbar, brilliant, brilliant goal. Toure, who would be the best defender walking planet Earth but for the fact that he plays alongside Gallas (who is injured), broke up an attack in midfield and passed to Hleb who turned Wicky before passing to Fabregas, the Spaniard did a Bergkamp style pirouette onto the ball before slipping a pass into van Persie and he waited for Wachter to commit before picking his spot. A perfect Arsenal style goal as would have been the second had Wachter not failed to hold a nothing shot on the end of a flowing move. Walcott (Euro 2008 anyone?) broke down Hamburg's right before crossing for Baptista to head in his first Arsenal goal.
Arsenal must get a point in Porto to seal their place in the knockout stages and do so with the suspended Henry. With Porto having already qualified I can't see Arsenal having too many problems.
Attendance : 59,962
Assists : Fabregas, Walcott, Walcott
CSKA MOSCOW 0-2 PORTO
Zhirkov got caught in possession by Lucho and he hit a pass upto Postiga who was standing on the half-way line, Postiga sprayed the ball wide to Lisandro and Quaresma slammed his centre into the roof of the net. Quaresma teased two defenders before chipping a fantastic pass into Lisandro, he headed down and Lucho steadied himself before rifling a volley past Akinfeev.
Milan must sign Quaresma, he's great and twice the player Ronaldo is.
Attendance : 30,000
Assists : Lisandro, Lisandro
1 November 2006
ARSENAL 0-0 CSKA MOSCOW
Attendance : 60,003
Assist : n/a
HAMBURG 1-3 PORTO
Lucho returned Mathijsen's headed clearance with a stunning right foot volley past Kirschstein. Quaresma forced another mistake, Atouba should have cleared his cross but a sloppy first touch allowed Lisandro to steal the ball from him and lob in the visitor's second. van der Vaart, back after another injury, gave Hamburg hope when he headed in a corner. Substitute Berisha was desperately unlucky to see his volley come back off a post and Sanogo also went agonisingly close to grabbing an equaliser. Moraes wrapped up the points with a perfectly placed shot from the edge of the box.
Attendance : 50,000
Assists : n/a, n/a, Trochowski (ck), Jorginho
17 October 2006
PORTO 4-1 HAMBURG
Anderson intercepted Benjamin's hospital pass and took advantage of a slip by a defender to run into the box and roll the ball to the back post for Lisandro to tap-in. Hamburg had a goal harshly disallowed for a phantom foul on the 'keeper. Ljuboja conceded a penalty with an insane handball in first half injury time. Postiga headed in a third and Lisandro completed the rout with a deft finish following a great run by Moraes. Trochowski scored the pick of the goals when he thumped a Mahdavikia cross into the bottom left corner.
Attendance : 37,500
Assists : Anderson, n/a, Quaresma, Moraes, Mahdavikia
CSKA MOSCOW 1-0 ARSENAL
Attendance : 36,500
Assist : Ignashevich (fk)
26 September 2006
ARSENAL 2-0 PORTO
In a new stadium, with a significantly larger pitch, Arsenal struggled in the opening weeks of the season. Last week Henry scored with his head from a deep cross, an absolute rarity. Based on the opening goal in this match Wenger has finally got over his long held aversion to playing an air game. The brilliant Eboue broke from defence to give Hleb support on the right, collected a pass, teased left back Cech before accelerating away and whipped a cross towards the back post which Henry emphatically head into the bottom corner. Gallas, now playing more like Vieira and supporting the attack, ran from the half-way line and dribbled past four players, no really, centred to Henry, he passed out wide to Hleb and he in turn drilled a low shot past Helton. Impressive.
Attendance : 59,861
Assist : n/a, Henry
CSKA MOSCOW 1-0 HAMBURG
Dudu! Ha Ha.
Attendance : 26,000
Red Card : Lauth 85 (Hamburg)
Assist : Carvalho (ck)
13 September 2006
PORTO 0-0 CSKA MOSCOW
Attendance : 28,500
Assist : n/a
HAMBURG 1-2 ARSENAL
Gilberto Silva converted a penalty after Kirschstein was sent off for bringing down Van Persie. I missed the incident so am not sure if the red card was justified. Rosicky hit an incredible shot from about 30 yards which screamed into the net. Hamburg opened up the Arsenal defence with some quick interplay on the edge of the box, the moved finished with Sanogo tapping in Jarolim's center.
Attendance : 51,258
Red Card : Kirschstein
Assists : Van Persie (won pen), Van Persie, Jarolim