|
|
(1) 3 - 1 (0) Arsenal
Kiev, Wednesday 4th November 1998
UEFA Champions League
- See Coventry match report page for details of
memorial fund for the steward who died following the incident with the Arsenal
bus on Saturday.
Preview
- injury updates 04/11/98
The latest blow is a possible problem with Petit, who has some sort
of throat infection and is taking anti-biotics. He missed training last
night. Wenger said yesterday that Manu has a 70% chance of playing tonight.
On the plus side, looking beyond tonight at any rate, Wenger has
said "what is really irritiating is that these are all short-term injuries,
including Dennis's back problem. Another 3 or 4 days and we could have had
a full-strength side". The other interesting thing Arsène said
was that he won't play a lone striker (ie Anelka) but someone
(ie Wreh or Boa Morte) will be up there with him. Seeing as Wenger is
always saying he sees Wreh as a shadow striker like Bergkamp it
seems likely that he'll get the nod. If Petit doesn't make it then
Boa Morte would presumably play on the left wing with Hughes coming infield
in Manu's place.
Lee Dixon had a hamstring scare but is ok.
Let's face it, a draw tonight would be a very good result indeed.
Something of the spirit of Copenhagen is required.
- 02/11/98 injury news
Dennis Bergkamp is out of the match. Even if he were able to get
to Kiev overland, he has a back injury that would probably keep him
out anyway. Some reports (eg Alan Smith in the Telegraph) have suggested
the "injury" might be a smokescreen to cover his long trip to the Ukraine,
but our intelligence suggests not....
Steve Webster writes (on Sunday 1st Nov):
"Like others, I have been clinging to the notion that DB10's
injury might be a cunning Gallic plan by AW to surprise Kyiv on Wednesday.
It is my sad duty to impart the following information.
The squash club I play at in St.Albans is part of a very nice health club
that has recently been frequented more & more by the team.(my mrs was
running on the next treadmill to Emmanuel Petit last week and one
of the funniest things I've seen in ages was the back four on exercise bikes
with Harry sitting on one directly behind them).
Anyway I went in this
morning to be confronted by the sight of God on an exercise bike in front
of the tv sets. So the good news is that Dennis is mobile, the bad news is
that it is not in a kyivwardly direction."
Steve has confirmed that the back five were in formation, ie Lee and Nige
on the ends.
- Tony Adams is still injured, and is not expected even to travel with
the party. Bould will doubtless deputise as centre-back and captain.
- Christopher Wreh is still doubtful, although our lack of strikers
at the moment may tempt Wenger to risk him. Unlike the Coventry match,
Fredrick Ljungberg is not available for selection, being cuptied
till the quarter-finals.
- It's not getting any better I'm afraid. Today (Monday),
Soccernet reports that Overmars is now a serious doubt for
the match. He damaged groin and stomach muscles on Saturday. He would
almost certainly have played a more central role (like against Coventry
on Saturday) and with Bergkamp and Wreh out, Ljungberg unavailable,
it looks like Boa Morte could be the only alternative to
putting Anelka alone
up front. Will
Wenger regret getting rid of Isaiah Rankin?
- At least Vieira and Petit are both back for this
one, so we shouldn't be over-run in midfield like at Wembley.
- The good news is that Andrei Shevchenko twisted an ankle
in Kiev's 2-0 win over CSKA on Saturday. Don't know if it's bad enough to
cast doubts on his appearance on Wednesday, but hopefully it'll at least
slow him down a bit.
03/11/98 Now they're saying on teletext that Shevchenko will play.
Reuters still reckons they're likely to be without him. Mind you, they don't
seem to have heard yet about Overmars being definitely out. Regarding
Shevchenko, Wenger has said "I expect him to play, Russian doctors
can make miracles." By which I take him to be suggesting that the
seriousness of the injury could have been heavily overstated in the
first place.
Defender Kakha Kaladze, reported to be out with a hamstring injury, is
now said to be fit.
They will, however, definitely be without Khatskevich (serving 5th of 5 match ban).
- See this
Ukrainian football news page for news of Kiev. Latest disturbing news is
that the Kiev coach switched the positions of various players for the match
against CSKA at the weekend, in order to confuse Arsenal scout Dave Holden
who was at the match. They won 2-0.
- Read the AFCi preview. It's
a bit out of date now.
(1) 3 - 1 (0) Arsenal
Kiev, Wednesday 4th November 1998
UEFA Champions League
scorers: Rebrov 27 (pen) Hughes 83
Holovko 62
Shevchenko 72
Arsenal:
Seaman
Dixon Bould (Grimandi 45) Keown Winterburn
Vivas (Garde 84) Vieira Parlour Petit BoaMorte (Hughes 67)
Wreh
It's hard not to feel hard-done-by, by this unflattering scoreline.
It was a difficult night, with the pitch cutting up in the wet. The
Kiev players seemed to be able to cope with it better though, and
while Arsenal had their fair share of the play they never looked
quite as dangerous. Our injury problems seemed eased when Petit
was announced to be playing, but then the team list got to the
strikers and it became clear that Anelka was out. Just to make
things easier, Bould
got injured after 11 minutes and went off for a while apparently
for treatment to his head. He came back on after 4 or 5 minutes
but had to go off again a bit later for another 5 or 6, and was
eventually brought off a minute into injury time at the end
of the first half, Grimandi coming on in a stright swap.
Bould apparently suffered a leg injury as well.
Wreh played alone up front, with Parlour and Boa Morte in
particular looking to get up with him. Parlour's energy in
a more central position was effective, but we missed him
in front of Dixon where Garde strayed from his defensive
duties a bit too easily.
The first goal came from a penalty conceded by Keown. He was
chasing Rebrov into the left side of the box and clipped his
heels. The striker was clearly playing for it but you
can't really complain, a bit of an error by Keown to let the
man cut across just in front of him like that (Owen-style).
Seaman did well to get his left hand to Rebrov's spot-kick, but
the ball dropped to the ground and span 6 inches over the line.
Seaman made a brilliant save later in the half. Unable to hold
the ball he fell to the ground and just managed to hook
the free ball away in time.
Right at the end of the half we nearly equalised during an extended
penalty area scramble, several Arsenal players getting shots blocked,
and one saved, before Vieira was bundled over with the ball just
inside the box. A free-kick was given against Vieira who
was also booked. Sad to say, it's easy to conclude (of him) that
it was dissent.
They got their second 15 minutes into the second half. Vivas conceded
a free kick on the right wing, and the free0kick was
headed in by the big centre-back Holovko. Vivas was marking him but
got no-where near, and Grimandi appeared to duck away from it. Suddenly
the absence of Bould or Adams was felt a bit more keenly.
On 72 minutes the match was put beyond our reach from another free-kick.
This time Shevchenko curled it round the wall and just inside the left
post from 25 yards or so. Seaman might be a bit disappointed, as he
got there so nearly in time that the ball appeared to go through his
arms. But there's no denying the quality of the shot.
Stephen Hughes pulled one back, with the Kiev defence going to sleep
at a Petit corner on 84 minutes and leaving him loads of space to
head it home. Christophe Wreh looked to have made it really interesting
at the death, when he turned in a great Hughes cross (please can we play
Hughes instead of Boa Morte next time?). But Wreh was given offside,
which at least means that watching Hughes's blasted long-range
free-kick 2 minutes into injury time go just past the woodwork wasn't
as painful as it might have been.
In the other match, Panathinaikos beat Lens 1-0. That puts them top
pf the group with us, Lens and Kiev behind them on 5 but sadly in
the reverse order (a complete reversal of the order of the teams in
the table). Our loss to Kiev means that if we finish equal
with them on points, they'll finish above us because of the results
between the 2 teams. But although the only result worth betting on
is Kiev winning their remaining 2 and going through, this horribly close
group has surely got some surprises left.
More here soon.
Rupe.
Other reports
copyright belongs to original author where credited. otherwise © Rupert Ward, ArseWeb MMV
ArseWeb is NOT the official Arsenal site. The (excellent) official site is here
|