Suffering Solna
Arsenal 3 AIK Solna 1
by Myles Palmer
FEATURES
THE ARSENAL AGM - FULL WRITE UP
FIVE REASONS: ARSENAL COULD WIN IN BARCELONA
CARLTON AND ITV UPSET US AGAIN
JEKYLL AND HYDE PLAY THE NOU CAMP
It was agony. It was sheer purgatory. It was hellish. I have never suffered as much as I did in this match.
My high anxiety only lasted 91 minutes, but it took five years off my life.
Arsene Wenger looked haunted and tormented on the ITV2 videotape, which I watched this morning.How does he handle the stress?
Arsenal v AIK Solna was a must-win match, but still only a football match. A vital Champions League game, but still only a football match.
It should not matter so much, but it does. It should not drain your nervous system and make you feel as if your head is in a vice.
I should know enough not to get bent out of shape by a game of football. I should have moved maturely beyond feelings of fear, doubt, paralysis, strangled hope. Let's face it, last night should have been fun. A crowd of 71,227 turned up to see the easiest of Arsenals six Champions League games. Three points to boost morale for next Wednesday night in Barcelona, the hardest of their six games.
I had a superb seat in the second row of the press box. The Solna players, seen through binoculars as they lined up for the presentation, looked like the Watford of the Champions League, raw, rugged athletes ready to run their legs down to stumps.
The Arsenal team was what we had expected, with Ljungberg wide on the right, Grimandi in midfield. Kanu, Henry, Silvinho and Luzhny were on the bench with Upson, Vivas and Lukic.
In the second minute Overmars hit the best left-foot cross of his Arsenal career. It went to the near post. But Suker missed the header. He went for the nearside top corner and missed by a country mile.
He should have tried a glancing header. Some strikers can only time a glancing header from right to left, not left to right. If Suker had scored then, Arsenal would have cruised to victory.
Solna defended cleverly, with a 4-4-2 system, pushing up to the 45-yard line whenever they could.
They are tactical rather than technical.
After nine minutes Bergkamp played a pass to Suker, got the ball back in the box, and hit the keeper when he should have clipped it inside the near post.
For a player of the Dutchman's ability, a woeful miss from close range. And an alarming signal, something that made me think : How many chances will we need to score? 15 chances? 22 chances?
Overmars had a weak header off a Winterburn cross, then hit a low cross which a defender miscued onto the roof of the net.
Sixteen minutes had been played and, for me, it was deja vu. Panathinaikos/Kiev/Lens revisited, the same old story. We can pass, we can dominate, we can create good moves, we can split defences, but we cannot score goals. And there is something uniquely frustrating and debilitating about not being able to score when you can do everything else.
A promising counter-attack broke down when Suker's pass failed to find Bergkamp. Tall keeper Mattias Asper fumbled an Overmars shot from 25 yards
The problem was a lack of bright movement. There were not enough runs being made for Bergkamp's passes.
Then it happened. As Vieira broke upfield, beating two men, slipping the ball square to Bergkamp, Ljungberg suddenly scooted through the middle. Suker made a run across the centreback, who took half a step towards him, leaving a momentary gap. Bergkamp's pass found Ljungberg, who took two little touches and finished clinically with the outside of his right foot. So Arsenal were 1-0 up after 28 minutes.
A Bergkamp rocket was half-stopped by Asper, and the ball rolled loose for a moment. Overmars mishit a shot well wide after Winterburn's cross was headed out.
Portuguese ref Mr Melo Pereira gave a dubious free-kick to Solna 25 yards out, then allowed the Arsenal wall to encroach to within two yards of the kicker. Overmars outpaced his own strikers and had to check back, Vieira had a shot comfortably saved. It was one-way traffic.
Grimandi was crocked 10 seconds in the second half.A typical foul by a player who has made a mistake. Lagerlof miscontrolled the ball, then lunged at Grimandi, who went up in the air and landed painfully.
A two minute delay, then he went off for further treatment.So the second half really kicked off twice.
Arsenal were stuttering now. Manninger panicked on a Keown backpass and hoofed the ball out near the halfway line. Silvinho was warming up.
Then Novakovic turned Keown on their left wing and crossed. Adams headed out, Overmars, central and deep for reasons only he knows, tried a blind first time pass with no opponent near him. A really dopey thing to do. The ball went to Nordin, who poked it forward. Keown miscued a left foot clearance to No.4, Ola Andersson, who played it forward to Nordin, who had kept running.
Nordin tucked the ball past the advancing Manninger, taking the chance neatly from 13 yards as Winterburn raised his arm, looking over his shoulder at the linesman, who kept his flag down. So it was 1-1 after 53 minutes. Winterburn was a fraction late coming out, playing Nordin onside.
A much smaller mistake than the kamikaze pass by Overmars. We can count on one hand the number of times Winterburn has been late coming out in the Nineties. And still have enough fingers to stick in a bowling ball.
It looked as if Grimandi was running off his knock, but Silvinho came on for him after 56 minutes, with Vieira switching to his more familiar anchor role.
Silvinho has antelope pace, like Danny Thomas, the little Spurs right back of the early Eighties. This means the Brazilian can glide away from opponents when he goes forward, and recover mistakes in defence.
But positionally Silvinho has a lot to learn. A football team needs skill and speed, but it also needs shape. Arsenal are a shape team, and Wenger is a shape manager, so Mr Silvinho has to be more than a quick, nimble headless chicken.
Novakovic was injured when Dixon tackled him. He rolled off the field, then rolled back on again to delay play. Dixon gave him some verbal abuse for that despicable piece of gamesmanship.
When Suker was fouled just in front of the D, Bergkamp lifted one of his better free-kicks just over the angle.
Time was running out. After 68 minutes Wenger brought Kanu and Henry on for Overmars and Ljungberg. Henry, more of a right winger than the Swede, was soon fouled in a wide position. Keown headed Bergkamp's freekick against the underside of the bar, but the rebound eluded Kanu.
Arsenal were still stuttering with some shambolic bad passing in their own half. Having lost shape when Grimandi went off, they lost even more when Overmars and Ljungberg departed.
Kanu won another free kick, but the keeper saved Bergkamp's thumping shot. There were desperate moments in the 73rd minute when two Swedes went clear of the defence, looking offside, although the replay showed them onside.
The guy delayed far too long and allowing Winterburn to steam in for the block. The ball hit his left arm, but no penalty was given.
Arsenal were living dangerously now. Silvinho glided to the byeline and crossed but Bergkamp's near post header was far too fine and stayed in play on the far side.
Suker produced a couple of enterprising moves. First an ambitious dipper from 25 yards, just over. Then some chest control and an exquisite left foot backheel that gave Henry an open goal. But he shot wide of the far post.
Missing that sitter from ten yards was bad enough. But Henry missed it on the wrong side. A finisher would have shot near side. It was a simple one on one, with Asper much nearer the far post. Henry made the wrong choice. And, having made the wrong choice, his execution was poor. He placed his shot a yard wide. He was not even close.
In a vital match like this, poised at 1-1 in the 81st minute, it was infuriating to see the Frenchman miss such a simple chance. A natural striker would instinctively know where to shoot in that situation. He would not panic. His feet would do the thinking, make the choice.
After 83 minutes Ola Andersson had a shot saved by Manninger, the only real shot he had to stop in the whole game.
After 88, Henry won another free kick on the right. Bergkamp crossed, Vieira headed wide. A header that was neither one thing nor the other. Not a header on target and not a flick-on to Adams, who was loitering with intent at the far post.
By now Bergkamp, with the seconds ticking away, was fouling defenders.
Clearly, Bergkamp was feeling as intensely frustrated as I was.
Inside my head a voice was screaming : "Don"t kick him, he will
take
30 seconds to place the freekick, walk back, and take it. And
there are
only 120 seconds left!"
Then Winterburn hoisted a good ball downfield, Suker headed on to Kanu, who was wrestled to the ground by Brundin. After an eternity of seconds, Bostikboots, who was sitting down, hooked the ball square to the unmarked Henry, who scored with a low shot.
If Bostikboots is on the field, there is always hope. He can conjure a goal out of thin air.
Solna, now facing two defeats in their first two games, piled forward. Manninger punched out, Silvinho won the loose ball, flicking it to Bergkamp, who released Thierry Henry, who raced away from inside his own half, took the ball right up to Asper, then gave Suker a tap-in.
The scoreline sounds comfortable, but this was the most uncomfortable 3-1 win I have ever witnessed. Benfica was easier to bear in 1991. I knew Benfica would win after half an hour and I just sat there waiting to lose.
Isaias, Schwarz, Thern and Yuran were brilliant, on an another level, and I hoped they could win in 90 minutes, rather than prolong my waiting, my pain.
But Arsenal's fighting spirit took it to extra time before Sven-Goran Eriksson's side stuffed us 3-1.
Dynamo Kiev was easier to handle because they were also better than Arsenal. Shevchenko outshone Bergkamp and I expected to lose.
The 1-1 draw felt like a defeat. That was a must-win game. I knew Arsenal's Eurodream was over. The only time I have suffered such torture at a football match was in Amsterdam in 1980. The Ajax-Nottingham Forest semi-final.
Forest had won the first leg 2-0. The second leg was always going to be a backs-to-the wall job. April 23rd 1980, the same night that Paul Vaessen scored the winner for Arsenal against Juventus in Turin. Soren Lerby of Ajax scored with 22 minutes to go, Viv Anderson and Kenny Burns were heroic, but the final whistle took far too long to come. Ajax was the longest 22 minutes of my life. AIK Solna was the longest 91 minutes of my life.
Its a real shame that the boys made such hard work of Solna, who are not as talented as Lens or Panathinaikos. Because the real tests are in the future.
Solna are just a tough bunch of Swedes who give little away. However, there were excuses. No Petit, no Seaman.
Suker and Bergkamp are still trying to read each other, still working out each others moves.
The Grimandi injury was very damaging to the rhythm of the second half, epecially as he had been very effective in the first half. And in the previous two games.
Grimandi lacks Petit's range of passing, his power, his shooting ability.
But he will be important in the Nou Camp, if fit. Arsenal's best players were Adams, Vieira and Winterburn.
I like Ljungberg because he is brave, quick and scores goals. He gets in where it hurts and is technically better than Parlour.
Parlour should be back against Watford, having played for the reserves in a 7-0 thrashing of Crystal Palace. His running power and tackling will be badly needed against Sergi and Rivaldo.
But why do Arsenal always have to do it the hard way? Andy Linighan in 1993, Mickey Thomas in 1991, having to go to White Hart Lane in the last game to win the league in 1971, going 1-0 down in extra time in the FA Cup final four days later and having to come back and win 2-1. The Fairs Cup, two legs, losing 3-1 to Anderlecht in Brussels and having to win 3-0 at Highbury to win the club's first trophy for 16 years.
A long time, 16 years. A very, very long time for Arsenal fans, while the world famous Lillywhites of Spurs were winning everything in sight.
Maybe the high anxiety was even higher than mine that night in 1970.