Arsenal go agonisingly close to pulling off breathtaking comeback

Arsenal bowed out of the Champions League after a spirited 3-0 second-leg victory over AC Milan saw them fall just short of a remarkable comeback.

Trailing 4-0 after a nightmare performance at the San Siro a fortnight ago, Gunners manager Arsene Wenger knew his side faced a tall order to rewrite history and become the first team to recover from such a deficit in the competition.

For an hour or so at Emirates Stadium last night it appeared as if the record books would be torn up, as the Gunners reduced the deficit with first-half goals from Laurent Koscielny, the impressive Tomas Rosicky and Robin van Persie’s penalty.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

However, the second-half onslaught never came as Milan – who had somehow managed to go out to Deportivo La Coruna in the 2003-04 quarter-finals, losing the second leg in Spain 4-0 having won 4-1 at home – regrouped and were not really troubled during the closing stages.

Despite all their courageous endeavour, Arsenal must now concentrate all of their energy on retaining a place in the top four of the Barclays Premier League to make sure such engaging European nights return next season.

Arsenal needed an early breakthrough, which came after just seven minutes when Koscielny – who had scored an own goal at Liverpool on Saturday – headed in a corner from Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain.

After van Persie had seen his near-post effort from a tight angle saved, there was a moment of panic in the Gunners’ defence when Kieran Gibbs was booked after hacking down Stephan El Shaarawy, the 19-year-old making his Champions League debut, following a poor clearance by goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The shaky Milan rearguard was breached again in the 25th minute. Theo Walcott surged down the right, and when his cross was half-cleared by Thiago Silva, the ball dropped to Rosicky who planted it back inside the near post.

The Emirates Stadium faithful were now in full voice as the unlikeliest of comebacks was on.

As half-time approached, Oxlade-Chamberlain powered into the right side of the Milan penalty area and was sandwiched by Antonio Nocerino and Djamel Mesbah.

It seemed an age before Slovak referee Damir Skomina pointed to the spot and after another delay for the ball to be relaid on the spot, van Persie kept his cool to smash home his 32nd goal of the season.

Hide Ad
Hide Ad

The closest Arsenal came in the second half came after Gervinho went clear on the left side of the Milan box, but his deflected shot hit the legs of Christian Abbiati, van Persie’s follow-up chip being hit straight at the relieved Milan goalkeeper.