Arsenal put on a late show
FOR more than a decade Arsenal fans have urged Arsene Wenger to try to make the side a bit more like Barcelona and Real Madrid.
This, though, was not the week to try to finally emulate them.
After everything they have put their fans through in recent years, they owed them a quiet Thursday night in front of the box.
But no. Once again Arsenal had to do it the hard way – unable to rest easy until Danny Welbeck continued his recent goalscoring form by sweeping the ball past Igor Akinfeev, with Aaron Ramsey chipping home in injury time as the Gunners reached the semi-finals.
After tonight, though, only an optimist whose glass is as permanently half-full as Wenger’s will be able to drink to the fact they squeaked through as any sort of demonstration of character.
Once again, senior players failed to take control of 90 minutes they should have cruised through and it was not as though they had not had enough calls to arms over the preceding 48 hours.
It has not been a good week for three-goal advantages in Europe.
Barcelona were toppled despite enjoying the identical 4-1 first-leg lead that Arsenal brought into this game and Juventus had clawed back a similar-sized deficit at the Bernabeu, albeit briefly.
And it was a night for hattricks – the World Cup organisers presenting the travelling Arsenal fans with traditional military ushankas, complete with ear flaps, as a “Warm Welcome to Moscow”.
Not that there were many of those who had made the trip – the majority of away fans among the 1,000 or so in the Arsenal end were locals with a soft spot for the Gunners.
Thankfully, the mood was good-natured, despite the awkward political background to this clash but that did not prevent the home fans from making it intimidating with their raucous singing throughout.
By contrast, it took their players a little while to get going. It was 21 minutes before either side managed a shot, a tame effort from debutant Kristijan Bistrovic which trickled wide of Petr Cech’s goal before Alexandre Lacazette responded with a breakaway effort which was deflected over the bar.
With Mohamed Elneny marauding about the pitch energetically in the place of flu victim Granit Xhaka, the passing between Jack Wilshere, Ramsey, Mesut Ozil and Welbeck was fluid enough to ensure most of the possession was enjoyed by the Gunners.
At the other end, Ahmed Musa and Aleksandr Golovin, dangermen at the Emirates, seemed to run out of puff as quickly as ideas as they got near to goal.
But never underestimate the ability of the Arsenal defence to implode. It was the simplest of right-foot crosses from the left touchline from Konstantin Kuchaev, but Kirill Nababkin won an easy header and although Cech did well to get down low and push the ball out, Fedor Chalov reacted first to poke the ball over the line.
Out of nowhere, the gloves – not to mention several of the shirts on a cool Moscow evening – were off.
Bistrovic fired a 20-yard shot inches over the bar and somehow Arsenal held on for a frantic six minutes until the break.
From the opening exchanges of the second half it seemed that the visitors were again determined to sit back too deeply with Elneny dropping further back.
The ploy succeeded for precisely five minutes as once again Arsenal shot themselves in the foot.
Golovin was given time to shoot from range, Cech failed to hold and this time it was
Nababkin finishing off the rebound. Cech was at full stretch again in the 53rd minute, this time turning Golovin’s free-kick around the post. It was nervy stuff.
That sense could have been eased if Elneny had not over-eagerly strayed offside before heading in after 57 minutes – but at least it was a reminder to Arsenal that an aging defensive unit were there for the taking.
Instead, hearts were again in their mouths when Musa tumbled in search of a penalty with no success, to the disgust of the hosts.
Wilshere limped off through injury, Laurent Koscielny sliced over the bar from a corner and Golovin volleyed inches wide as Arsenal seemed determined to take it to the wire.
Then, with 15 minutes to go, Welbeck broke through the defence, completed a neat one-two with Elneny and fired in, with Ramsey breaking free at the death to add a second. Arsenal may have made it through but three much harder challenges are to follow if they are to make it back into the Champions League.
CSKA (3-5-2): Akinfeev; A Berezutski, Ignashevich, V Berezutski; Kuchaev, Dzagoev (Vitinho 38), Bistrovic (Natcho 72), Golovin, Nababkin; Chalov (Milanov 79), Musa. Goals: Chalov 39, Nababkin 50.
ARSENAL (4-2-3-1): Cech; Bellerin, Mustafi, Koscielny, Monreal; Ramsey, Elneny; Ozil, Wilshere (Chambers 69), Welbeck; Lacazette (Iwobi 77). Goals: Welbeck 75, Ramsey 90.
Referee: F Zwayer (Ger).