The much awaited match was played on 8th March 2011 at the Camp Nou. With the soccer scoreboards showing 2-1 to Arsenal after the first leg, it was anybody’s game!
Both the teams, Arsenal and Barcelona, played a fantastic match but in the end it was Barcelona who emerged victorious and advanced to the quarterfinals of the UEFA Champions League. It is the fourth consecutive year that Barcelona has succeeded in reaching the last 8 in the Champions League, but for Arsenal it is another season of dashed hopes as the soccer scoreboards show that they are now out of the Champion’s league.
The first half of the match was full of incidents for the visitors. Arsenal’s captain, Cesc Fabregas, was not expected to play the match because of a hamstring injury, however, he was declared fit at the last moment and was ready to face the Champion League’s favorite team. In the end he only played for the first half of the match and had to leave the field because of his injury. Then the visitors had to replace their goalkeeper in the 19th minute when Szczesny dislocated his finger while saving a free kick.
The drama had only begun when Sergio Busquets scored an own goal from Samir Nasri’s corner in the 53rd minute. Just 3 minutes later, Van Persie was red carded for shooting offside after the referee had blown the whistle. He argued with the Swiss referee that he could not hear his whistle because of the boisterous crowd but he had no choice but to leave the field. Later in an interview he said: “How could I hear his whistle with 95,000 people jumping up and down? It was a total joke this sending off. It had a big influence (on the rest of the match).”
Arsenal was now playing with only 10 men. When they entered the second half, they were without their captain Fabregas, and their forward Van Persie. The initial goal of the match was scored by the Barca’s hero, Lionel Messi, Xavi scored the 2nd for his team to equalize in the 69th minute and the third goal for Barcelona was scored from the penalty spot by none other than Lionel Messi in the 71st minute after Koscielny’s foul on Pedro. The home team won 3-1 and a 4-3 aggregate to advance to the quarterfinals.
Arsenal was truly hit by the bad luck factor. Everything went wrong for them, particularly the referee’s decision to send off Van Persie. The Swiss referee, Massimo Busacca is known as one of the best referees in the game but this decision has surely tethered his reputation somewhat. The fact that Persie didn’t hear the whistle is evident as the time difference between the whistle and the shot was only one second! Wilshere was not as impressive as he was in the 1st leg and Arsenal failed to create scoring chances which contributed to the side’s defeat.
For more information on Barcelona FC, go to:
fcbarcelona.com