BACKING DOWN
GAA willing to switch fixture for Liverpool
THE Leinster Council is open to moving the throw-in time of the hurling championship game between Offaly and Wexford to avoid a clash with the UEFA Champions League final between Liverpool and Real Madrid.
With the hurling match scheduled for a 7pm start at O’Connor Park on May 26 and the soccer set for a 7.45 kick-off, Leinster chairman Jim Bolger didn’t rule out a change of start time.
The round three hurling match is part of a double-bill that involves Westmeath and the winners of Laois-Wexford in the Leinster quarter-final at 5pm at the same venue.
‘I suppose we have our fixtures made at present but we would be open if we thought it was going
DIEGO COSTA appears at the doorway of the Atletico Madrid dressing room an hour before kick-off. ‘Lads,’ he announces with a big grin. ‘It’s Arsenal.’
Well, maybe he didn’t, but he could have. It was one of those nights, those Arsenal nights in Europe, where we saw glimpses of the potential but left defeated and disappointed.
Arsenal could have sent Arsene Wenger to a glorious send-off as a Europa League finalist in Lyon, but they did not. They always wanted one extra touch before crossing, they were always half a yard short of getting a toe to it in the six-yard box. They were just over, they were just wide, they were just — Arsenal.
And Costa? He was what you expected, too. The match-winner with a goal in first-half injurytime, and a threatening, brooding presence throughout. He got a yellow card for a clash with Shkodran Mustafi 15 minutes before the end, the most widely anticipated explosion of yellow since Vincent Van Gogh woke up one morning and announced those sunflowers look pretty. Still, if Arsenal had a few like Costa maybe they wouldn’t be in this predicament now. Maybe Wenger would have got his farewell in a cup final, rather than at Huddersfield in two Sundays’ time, marshalling a team that will not be returning to the Champions League for another season, at least.
Yet Arsenal, when it comes off, are still a very good side. They got in behind Atletico on plenty of occasions last night, did enough to win the match with more of a goal threat. Yet there is something missing. A determination, a cutting edge. They look like a team that has not heard the crack of a whip in a very long time. In that way, they were Atletico’s perfect opposition.
Even with Diego Simeone imprisoned on the balcony of an executive box following his first leg dismissal, this is very obviously his team. It is built to resist, to hold onto slender leads. Arsenal could not see out a single goal advantage at home, yet once Costa had got Atletico’s noses in front, the outcome was all too predictable. Taking the slowest walk to the touchline, replaced by Fernando Torres with eight minutes remaining, Costa embodied that desperado attitude. Arsenal don’t have that. They put pressure on Atletico’s goal without ever convincing good would come of it. They had a go, in their own way. It just wasn’t a way that was ever going to beat Atletico Madrid, which is why a change has to come.
The early signs were ominous for Arsenal. First, a rash chase out to clear by goalkeeper David Ospina, that brought him into conflict with his own team-mates, clattering into each other as he rushed to punch the ball.
This was followed by a coming together of Costa and Nacho Monreal that sent the Arsenal man sprawling, an outcome so predictable it was almost a cliche. Costa bullying a member of Arsenal’s back four? Who would have thought it?
Yet Arsenal looked good, these occasional lapses aside. Their passing was neat — short exchanges in the centre that Atletico struggled to contain, spreading wide to attack through the full backs or Mesut Ozil.
Sadly, much of it was undermined by a poor final touch or ball. A lovely passing move would come to nothing, overhit or sloppily controlled just when it mattered most. That is one of the biggest differences between the greatest Arsene Wenger sides and what he will be leaving to his successor. Quality.
Arsenal used to be mustard in and around the box, now it is where their finest work falls down. Their best move set Alexandre Lacazette away some 15 yards from goal, but his first touch was so heavy it took him out of shooting range into a tight corner.
All this would have been frustrating enough, had Arsenal not also suffered terrible bad luck within 10 minutes. Laurent Koscielny, the captain, fell clutching his right Achilles, in obvious agony, with no player near him. That is always a bad sign. His Achilles problems are long-standing, requiring constant care, and if the injury is as bad as it looked his season is over, his World Cup and probably his year, too.
Jack Wilshere took the armband, Callum Chambers the responsibility of fitting into the back four alongside Shkodran Mustafi. They kept Atletico at bay reasonably well at first.
Indeed, it was not until the 37th minute that Atletico carved out a serious scoring opportunity.
A corner was left bobbling about, no Arsenal player willing to put a name on it or a boot through it, eventually falling to Koke on the edge of the area, his shot flying just wide.
A minute later, a quickly taken free-kick by Koke again found Arsenal in sleep mode, Antoine Griezmann allowed to turn and shoot across the face of goal.
The warning signs were there and moments before half-time Arsenal were found wanting at the back again.
It was a lovely pass from Griezmann, slipping the ball to Costa on the left, but Hector Bellerin was simply not alert to the danger and Arsenal’s nemesis was left one on one with Ospina.
He hadn’t scored in eight games, but he does not miss from there — not against Arsenal, at least — and he made no mistake this time, either. He tested Ospina with a header, too, shortly after half-time, Atletico by now with their tails up.
Only frantic defending kept Costa at bay after 55 minutes, but with every turn of the screw Koscielny’s absence was starting to show. ATLETICO MADRID (4-4-2): Oblak; Thomas (Savic 90+3), Gimenez, Godin, Lucas; Saul Niguez, Gabi, Koke, Vitolo (Correa 74); Costa (Torres 83), Griezmann. Subs not used: Gameiro, Filipe Luis, Olabe, Werner.
Bookings: Gabi, Saul Niguez, Costa ARSENAL (4-3-2-1): Ospina; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny (Chambers 12), Monreal; Ramsey, Xhaka, Wilshere (Mkhitaryan 68); Welbeck, Ozil; Lacazette. Subs not used: Cech, Iwobi, Kolasinac, Maitland-Niles, Nketiah. Bookings: Wilshere, Monreal, Mustafi Referee: G Rocchi (Italy).