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The League Cup is on

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The League Cup is on Empty The League Cup is on

Post by surgicalassasin Sat Jan 26, 2008 8:02 am

Any cup competition is special. The excitement, the knowledge that you will have to fight to live the next day makes it all the more thrilling to the players and spectators alike. The World Wide Football League cup was no different. Arsenal was supposed to play Sevilla, a very tricky opponent for a first round game. The consolation for Gunners though was in the fact that they were the hosts and the Emirates stadium would back them as one, down to the last man.

Given the backdrop and the noise, Arsenal started brightly, Fabregas, Rosicky and Hleb were brilliant in the midfield. The strikers though were quite wasteful and coupled with a tight Sevilla defense ensured that the scorecard remained unchanged for the first half hour. But relentless pressure from Arsenal paid off when Eduardo collected a brilliant pass from Rosicky and skipped his marker and beat the keeper to open the scoring. The goal spurred Sevilla on and they started making several quick raids into the Arsenal half, catching them on the counter. But the defence held strong and Lehmann was not troubled too much.

The teams went into the break with Arsenal in the lead. And quite predictably, Sevilla came charged up after the break. They began to string together some good runs which were thwarted in the end zone by a solid defence with Gallas holding the centrestage. The game was going end to end and just as Sevilla was pressing for the goal to draw level, a Van Persie goal put them in even further trouble. Eduardo had been wasteful of a one on one with Palop , but just minutes later Van Persie made no mistake and slotted in to increase the lead. Sevilla had a tough task in their hands now. There was just under half an hour left and with a spirited Arsenal side and an even more boistrous crowd their ask became that much more harder.

But they showed everyone why they were one of the most successful clubs in Spain and Europe as they were not bogged down and instead answered with even more aggression. A rasping shot from Fabiano almost pulled one back for them, only to be denied by Lehmann. They threw everything but the kitchen sink, but Arsenal absorbed the pressure and almost went even further ahead in the dying minutes when Gallas skipped through half the Sevilla side only to see Palop pull off a magnificient save.

Arsenal advance to the next round on the back of this win and Sevilla return home having fought bravely. And that is the tragedy and beauty of a knock out competition.

surgicalassasin

Posts : 137
Join date : 2008-01-07
Location : TX, US (CST = GMT - 6)

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