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
Berisha 28  

Olic 23 Pen
van der Vaart 84  

Zhirkov 65
Sanogo 90    
   

 
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
Van Persie 52  

van der Vaart 4
Eboue 83  

 
Baptista 88    
     
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
   

Quaresma 2
   

Lucho 61
   

 
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
van der Vaart 62  

Lucho 44
   

Lisandro 61
   

Moraes 87
   

 
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
Lisandro 14, 81  

Trochowski 89
Lucho 45 (Pen)    
Postiga 69    
     
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
Carvalho 24  

 
   

 
Attendance : 36,500
Assist : Ignashevich (fk)
 
 
26 September 2006
 
ARSENAL 2-0

PORTO
Henry 38  

 
Hleb 48    
     
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 59  

 
   

 
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
Sanogo 91  

G Silva 12 (Pen)
   

Rosicky 53
   

 
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
 
R Mehdi