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Mixed feelings on last night |
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Both Manchester clubs eliminated in Champions League together with Ajax who went out in dubious circumstances.
I don’t really know what to think of last night. Let’s start with the fact that Thursday nights are no longer Spurs nights. They will now have to share them with two Manchester-based clubs. Both teams will face long travels to the outer regions of European football, maybe suffer from jetlags and then play their league games again on Sunday. All of that will not benefit their fitness, which of course will be an advantage for the other Premier League clubs chasing them.
Also I can really feel happy about some quotes that I read in the papers today. Especially the one where United’s Patrice Evra says he is disappointed to be condemned to play Europa League football. Also, some hilarious tweets were posted close after the game.
Arsenal keeper Wojciech Szczesny (@13Szczesny13 on Twitter) posted:
“I would NOT like to be in ManUtd dressing room right now”
@AFCAmden posted:
“Manchester City out is a victory for all Football fans tonight. Proves that money is not always everything!”
@simonafc posted:
“Just heard that the Manchester clubs are jointly releasing a fragrance for Christmas: Channel No.5" (via BBC live commentary) Hilarious.”
All of these, and so much more tweets mocking the Manchester teams made my evening really enjoyable in that perspective. Especially when you think of the fact that a small club such as APOEL Nicosia actually did qualify for the knock-out stages. Can’t wait for the draw.
However, as I am from Holland I am also very interested in how the Dutch teams perform. And the final round in Group D was something that I really did not like. And not because I am Dutch or anything, but the results were quite strange last night. Ajax – where Dennis Bergkamp is currently active as a coach - had a six goal advantage over Olympique Lyonnais before the start of the game. Ajax went 1-0 down but then had two goals disallowed where they absolutely should not have been disallowed after analyzing the video footage. In both occasions the linesman flagged while it was not offside. Ajax went into the break 2-0 down instead of being level at 2-2. It would have been a totally different game in the second half had both goals been given. Coming out of the dressing room 2-0 down to Real Madrid is not really motivating. But what was even more shocking is that Olympique Lyonnais were on 1-1 at half-time against Dinamo Zagreb. With that score line, Lyon had to score an amazing 5 goals in the second half, but guess what? They scored six, bringing their total goals scored in the game to 7! Credits to the French for that, but Zagreb defender Vida made this stunning second half performance quite dubious by winking at Lyonnais striker Bafetimbi Gomis. Meanwhile Ajax went down 3-0 in the end, so it was all over then for sure. But still, this does not feel good.
Now I will be honest about this, and I don’t want to be a bitter Dutch football fan. Until proven otherwise, I am not going to say this smells like corruption. But it is quite dubious to say the least. I am very interested to see how this will turn out in the end. And please, please UEFA and FIFA. That match was another proof of how desperately modern football needs video footage to be made available to the referee.
But now let’s face the facts. Arsenal, often referred to as a ‘club in crisis’ are through. And Man United and Man City are not. How about winning the Champions League now $amir? Enjoy Europa! |
| This article is placed in Mark His Words. Mark His Words is my personal column in which I share my views and opinions on the latest news and developments surrounding Arsenal FC. All other news items you can read on this website are based on press reports, news or rumours that I heard or read about, but this column is nothing more than my own space on the web where I can say whatever I want. Feel free to discuss my views using the comments section below but please remind that we are all free to have an opinion. If you decide to comment or start a discussion, do it with respect to other readers. |
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