Predictably, Arsene Wenger has pointed the finger of blame at the referee. But, in truth, he should be grateful to Massimo Busacca for the admittedly fatuous second yellow card he gave to Robin van Persie which reduced last night’s Champions League clash to 11 against 10.
Because if the Swiss referee hadn’t had his fit of pedantry, the furious Arsenal manager might have been forced to look deep in his own soul and face the harsh reality that the story of the Nou Camp wasn’t one, as he put it, of a ref killing the game, but of Barcelona killing Arsenal, from start to finish.
Or, as Pep Guardiola put it: “we were awesome against eleven and we were awesome against ten”.
If Wenger didn’t have an awful refereeing decision to act as a fig-leaf for his team’s embarrassment, he might have been forced to confront some of the more unpalatable facts about his side’s latest European crash.
Such as the certainty that, had they gone about their qualifying business properly, they would have avoided putting themselves in harm’s way for the knock-out draw.
Or that their comeback victory in the first leg was, for all its admirable resilience, decidedly of the smash and grab varieity.
Or that, in the Camp Nou, Barca had already hit the post, had a stonewall penalty denied to Messi, gone a goal up and gifted Arsenal a lifeline while there will still 22 men on the pitch.
Or that, by long night’s end, the match stats would show that Barcelona had completed 738 passes to Arsenal’s 199 and registered ten attempts on goal to Arsenal’s big, fat zero.
If Massimo Busacca was responsible for all that then yer man Messi – who contributed a wee bit as well, as I recall – should hand over his man of the match award to Arsenal’s public enemy number one.
When Wenger and van Persie are railing at a ref, you can find yourself stifling a yawn and yet, as underdogs always do, they are entitled to dream of what might have been had it remained 11 against 11. But not because Arsenal, at any stage in the night, ever really looked like putting it up to the imperious home side. Another telling measure of the extent to which they were forced to play second fiddle throughout is that their star man, by some distance, was substitute goalkeeper Manuel Almunia, whose heroics contrived to keep the scoreline the right side of humiliating.
But, strange to say, Barcelona were at fault here too. So often now do we find ourselves speaking of them putting the opposition to the sword that’s it’s easy to overlook how maddeningly profligate they were last night. Three could have should have been five or six but, in the absence of the coup de grace, they might easily have ended up handing the weapon to an almost floored opponent.
Think of it: one better first touch from Nicklas Bendtner in his side’s only counter of note late in proceedings and, astonishingly, Arsenal would have been the team on the brink of qualification.
So, alarmingly for the rest of the Champions League contenders, Barcelona can do better.
As for the poor old Gunners, their sense of grievance at van Persie’s red card would have been as nothing compared to the greater footballing injustice had they somehow come out on top in this one.
Far from bemoaning being reduced to ten, they might as well protest that, in all fairness, they should be allowed to field 12 when taking on the team of all the talents.
Source: http://feeds.examiner.ie/~r/iesportsblog/~3/LLWnXe_VqAM/post.aspx
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