Rome Here We Come

6 May 09 by Bill

Manchester United needed just ten minutes to confirm their place in this season’s Champions League Final, as the reigning Champions cruised passed Arsenal last night at the Emirates.

Coming into the game with a 1-0 lead, a goal for the visitors would leave Arsenal the unenviable task of needing three to get through and it didn’t take long to happen. Just under 8 minutes in fact.

From a Cristiano Ronaldo cut-back, young Kieran Gibbs slipped leaving Ji-Sung Park free to fire passed Manuel Almunia. The home fans were stunned and the away contingent ecstatic.

A couple of minutes later, Robin van Persie clattered into Cristiano Ronaldo a little over 45 yards from goal. The angle didn’t look great but Ronaldo had a look and fancied his chances. He lined the shot up, took his step back and struck that ball so sweetly that it dipped and curled all the way into the back of the net.

As a goalkeeper, it has to be disappointing being beaten from such a distance but take nothing away from the free-kick; it was a peach.

Eleven minutes gone and effectively game over. There was no way they were going to score 4. Wenger knew it, the fans most certainly knew it but more importantly, the players knew it.

Resigned to defeat, Arsenal offered little going forward and it was only Almunia’s fingertips that kept the score at two nil coming in for the break.

Arsenal looked to push forward after the restart but were soon caught short.

Ronaldo led the break with a clever flick to Park before he was off charging towards goal. Park picked out Rooney to his left who came forward before laying it off to Ronaldo as he charged into the box. With his closest marker a foot away there was only one place this was going and Ronaldo smashed in his second of the night.

With only an hour of the match played, the stadium began to empty. The home fans had seen enough of this and streams of them headed to the exits.

There was to be no more goals for United but that didn’t mean the drama was over. In the 75th minute, Fabregas burst into the United box but before he got his shot away, Darren Fletcher managed to get a toe to the ball before bringing the Spaniard down. Referee Roberto Rosetti deemed the challenge a foul and Fletcher was off.

Replays clearly show Fletcher played the ball first but with no avenue for appeal, it looks as though Fletcher will miss the final.

From the resulting penalty, Robin van Persie dispatched clinically into the top corner making it 3-1 and the Arsenal fans that remained burst into a chorus of “four more, we only need four more”.

Four more were never coming though and the match ended 3-1. Chelsea play Barcelona tomorrow in the other semi-final with the teams locked at 0-0. I hope Barcelona win; that would be a great final.