Barcelona Hammer the Gunners
[UPDATE : The scan on Cesc Fabregas's leg has shown that he has a small crack in his fibula - he will miss the rest of the season - one more injury for Arsenal to have to deal with - and he may also be out of the Spanish World Cup squad]
[A fibula and a tibia - not Cesc Fabregas's]
Arsenal were very fortunate to still be in this tie after the end of the match, but they also finished with a number of players seriously injured. A deluded cynic would say that Barcelona let Arsenal score a couple to make the second leg more interesting.
Arsenal were hammered by Barcelona and the statistics are embarrassing, with Barcelona having over 60% possession and making about 4 times as many passes as Arsenal. The man of the match was IMHO Almunia, despite letting in two goals (one of them pretty soft), as he kept out 4 or 5 goals in the first half and kept Arsenal in the match.
Walcott changed things when he came on and Arsenal managed to claw themselves back into the tie.
Arshavin was injured after just 27 minutes and was substituted, Gallas was also substituted with a recurrence of his calf injury and will probably miss the rest of the season.
Fabregas ended up with a potentially even worse injury 5 minutes before the end of the match when he was fouled in the box. He scored from the penalty spot to make the score 2-2 but he fears he make have broken something in his leg. The X-ray was inconclusive and he will be having more scans today.
Barcelona will be annoyed they let Arsenal back into the match as both their central defenders will have to sit out the return leg in Barcelona due to picking up too many cards. This is the only ray of hope for Arsenal who will have to improve a lot if they are to have any chance of beating Barcelona. A draw will not be good enough unless it is 3-3 or 4-4.
Arshavin's injury is also a calf strain and he says he will probably be out for 2 or 3 weeks.
