English Premiership giants Arsenal do not enjoy trips to former Soviet states and that was very much evident on Wednesday night too when the Gunners salvaged a last gasp draw against Ukrainian side Dynamo Kiev. Arsene Wenger’s men looked to have been punished by Kiev for missing a host of chances in the first half when Bacary Sagna was harshly adjudged to have fouled Ognjen Vukojevic inside the penalty box and Ismael Bangoura sent Manuel Almunia the wrong way to give Oleg Blokhin’s side a fortuitous lead that looked like the winner until William Gallas rescued a point by bundling in the ball from close range just two minutes from time following a low cross from the impressive Theo Walcott.
Arsene Wenger brought out a pretty attacking side at the 17000-seater Valery Lobanovskyi stadium with both Emmanuel Adebayor and Robin Van Persie given the responsibilities to take the game to Kiev’s unheralded defence. The North London side looked confident right from the outset and the passing and technique looked superior to a Kiev side that lost all their six games at last year’s disastrous Champions League campaign and failed to win a single game for the last four years. The first period was a story of Arsenal’s lack of sharpness in front of the goal as the likes of Robin Van Persie, Cesc Fabregas and Adebayor missed easy chances to take the game away from the home side’s grasp. As many times before, Arsenal fans feared the worst for their team as these gilt-edged misses could easily get punished and the fears turned into reality four minutes after the hour mark when to Arsene Wenger’s and the Arsenal football club fraternity’s fury and dismay, the Spanish referee awarded Kiev a generous penalty. Replays showed Vukojevic was pushing and pulling Sagna just as much the French right-back was doing. Yet the referee Luis Medina Cantalejo had seen enough contact to adjudge the spot kick which the Guinea international Ismael Bangoura put away coolly.
As the match wore on, Kiev’s goal aroused the home side’s confidence and Arsenal were heading for their third straight defeat against the Ukrainians following defeats in 1998 and 2003 until skipper William Gallas restored pride with a timely close-range finish. The game as a whole infuriated Arsene Wenger as the Frenchman felt that the referee was poor in his conduct of the match as he let go his anger publicly in a post match conference. ‘The Professor’ felt that Theo Walcott was not given the right protection during the match as England’s new-found hero was heavily dealt with by the Kiev defenders. In blunt words the Arsenal manager was quoted as saying “The referee should have sent off the left-back three times at least because he destroyed Walcott.” He went on saying “I wanted to understand how we had only three minutes of injury time and then only played one minute.”
The reaction was normal on the part of Mr.Wenger as his team had the opportunity to win the game comfortably given all the chances that came its way and then watch the referee award a soft penalty to the hosts that nearly resulted in a loss until Gallas’ late heroic show. Coming back from a difficult place like Kiev with a point is a sort of an achievement yet the Gunners know that sharpness in front of goal has to improve considerably before the season gets into full swing.
Image and Source Link:Independent