Barcelona knocks out Arsenal. Surprise, surprise. And it is all Wenger's fault.
He approached the game all wrong. An attacking team, with an attacking formation, defended? That's very wrong. Every person who watches Barcelona games knows well that even with strong defensive lines, the players will find a way to penetrate the wall. Wenger didn't want to risk exposing his defense by attacking, albeit he had the good players to counterattack strong.
Another year, another CL knockout by Barcelona. Tsk tsk Arsenal.
Now, how did the referee perform on one of the most thrilling and hard games? Surely, a referee of a high degree of acumen and objectivity is needed to supervise such a game, but that wasn't really the case in last night's fixture. Some of the mistakes or controversies that happened were plenty. To name a few, Abidal's "conversation" with Van Persie, Dani Alves's "push" on Nasri, Van Persie's rage on Alves, and probably the most controversial, Van Persie's second yellow card. I mean, really? The referee whistles and at the same time, maybe half a second later, Van Persie shoots to the back of the net, and he is accused of time wasting. That was a "joke", so claims most of Arsenal players, whom I advocate there.
But, a referee's mistakes remain part of every game and last night's result wouldn't have changed otherwise. Barcelona proved to be the better side, and deservedly booked themselves a seat in the quarter finals. Arsenal, hard luck. Please, PLEASE, learn from your mistakes, and maybe reinforce your weak defensive line. And next time, do not start Rosicky instead of Arshavin in games that big. And don't insult the referee no matter how unfair or wrong he was. See, you got fined for it. That is all.
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I am eagerly anticipating this evening's clash of Tottenham and AC Milan. This will surely be an exciting 90-minute watch.
Opinions on who will follow Barcelona and Shakhtar to the next round?