By Boris Mellor
April 20 2006

Arsenal started this game at a cracking pace, and within 12 minutes had a perfectly good ball in the net. However the linesman deemed Henry’s strike offside, a close decision which with the advantage of a TV replay was clearly wrong.

 Goals change games, such an early goal might have destroyed the submariner’s confidence, instead its denial appeared to slow Arsenal down.

 

It took Arsenal 20 minutes or more to get the tempo going again. Villarreal had stopped Manchester United scoring over two legs, and from this performance you could see why. They packed the midfield sending Arsenal wide, and then blocking every shot and half chance with flailing limbs and bodies. But with two replacement centre backs they were particularly jittery at corners, and it was from a corner that the Gunners finally capitalised. Henry’s corner was headed out but he got the ball back and passed to Hleb. Hleb beat the defence at speed and provided a superb cut-back that Toure poked in on 41 minutes. 

 

On 45 minutes Villarreal had a shout for a penalty denied by the referee who could not have been more than three yards away. Perhaps he thought it was just another dive by the well named submariners.

 

Arsenal came out like a whirlwind in the second half, and for the first 20 minutes cut the Spanish defence to shreds, Henry had an almost open goal but his gentle jink was headed off the line. Most of the action was Arsenal’s, but Villarreal constantly played for free kicks just outside the box. The referee refused half of them, and gave half, which was a goodly number. However the Gunners defended them ably. For the most part the Spanish were reduced to long range shots; and did I mention the diving?

 

True Villarreal defended, and held the midfield very well, but I couldn’t help thinking that a slightly sharper Arsenal would have scored at least two goals, but just as important was the fact that the Gunners kept a ninth clean sheet in a row.

 

Howvever as the other semi-final demonstrated these occasions rarely produce great football, and any opponent in the last four has to be treated with respect. This was not the cakewalk some pundits ridiculously suggested, but it was an efficient and mature performance that leaves the Gunners with a slight advantage for the second leg.