Almost like Battle of the Somme – Pinocchio wrong

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By Boris Mellor
December 7 2006

It was almost like the Somme, no not the mud, but because just before Xmas 1914 German and British troops climbed out of the trenches and started to play football, but there the similarity ends.

For here, just before the end of the game, both sides stopped playing football and climbed into their trenches.

What a brilliant game! However that is enough about Hamburg v CSKA Moscow, in fact the result at Hamburg meant that Porto and Arsenal would have gone through whatever happened in Portugal, but they were not to know that. Indeed the last score Freddy heard was that CSKA were winning 2-1, but he and the team, were obviously not spurred into doing anything about it, as they carried on playing for a draw.

It was no match to enjoy rather one to bite your nails down to their very ends. It was almost as bad as the Villarreal match. Why not as bad? Well we didn’t concede a penalty, and we created three more chances and had at least four corners. It’s true Porto hit the post twice, but apart from that Lehmann was not severely tested. It is also amazing that a such a young defence kept a clean sheet against such an experienced European side that is riding high in it’s own league, and has won two European trophies in recent times.

One particularly pleasing performance was Clichy’s, who attacked and defended brilliantly all night, I don’t think he put a foot wrong all match. If he has got his old form back then that must be the biggest gain of the night. The defence played well, but the rest of the team carried on grinding out the result. Indeed neither side had a shot for the first twenty minutes.

Wenger said he didn’t want to play for a draw, but with two teams defending in Arsenal’s half the midfield couldn’t find a way out. But it would be very wrong to write this off as a lethargic performance by the Gunners, they did fight for the ball, they tried to control the game. The one time they unleashed Adebayor he was offside, which was inevitable, with no one supporting him Porto could push up and stay up.

It’s not often a Wenger team plays for a draw, but they did the job professionally.

They had a bit of luck, but not as much as CSKA had in stealing four ill gotten points off Arsenal, but tonight Moscow’s luck ran out.

So what’s Pinocchio got to do with it? Well he was useless as Liverpool’s manager, and he is useless as a Sky Pundit. He confidently predicted on his web page that Porto would dump Arsenal out of the CL. He forgot it is based on a league, the best team over 6 games, without a doubt Arsenal were the best team over those games. The league doesn’t lie. The gap between being dumped out, and top of the group is quite wide. Plus Arsenal have always drawn in Portugal – the bookies don’t lie – it was the shortest odds ever.

All together now (to tune of One Nil to the Arsenal)

We’re shit and we top the group