OH, DANNY BOY!
Welbeck is saviour after Cech errors gift Russians the initiative
THIS was supposed to be a leisurely Thursday night stroll for Arsenal. It turned into an evening of trauma. Leading 4-1 from the first leg, they had one foot in the Europa League semi-final but they were one goal from going out when CSKA went 2-0 ahead after two errors from goalkeeper Petr Cech. But striker Danny Welbeck saved the day with a goal in the 75th minute before Aaron Ramsey added a second in added time.
Welbeck was quick to appreciate that Arsenal had played their getout-of-jail free card in order to book their place in today’s semifinal draw especially in a week of thrilling European fightbacks.
‘As you’ve seen this week, it’s difficult when you’ve got the advantage from the first game,’ England forward Welbeck told BT Sport. ‘But we stuck through and finally got the goal at the end.’
CSKA were brave and exuberant. Arsenal feeble and lacklustre. Here in Moscow, Arsene Wenger got away with one.
Wenger had warned his players of the perils of complacency but they did not heed his advice.
A fact acknowledged by captain Laurent Koscielny, who admitted: ‘That was not the plan (to sit back). We missed a lot of movement, to be available for our team-mates.
‘They played well with the ball, they had some opportunities and they took them. We are happy because we won the game.’
CSKA’s vibrant opening was matched by the home support. But much like the first leg, CSKA were impressive until the final ball during the first 30 minutes and Kristjian Bistrovic was forced to try his luck from distance but fired wide.
Then, just as you began to get the impression that CSKA’s valiant efforts would be in vain — despite all their positive play, they were not laying a glove on the Gunners — out of the blue they had Arsenal on the ropes.
Cech could not parry Kirill Nababkin’s downward header to safety and he was helpless to prevent Fedor Chalov tapping home the rebound.
Arsenal had won six on the spin before their trip to Moscow. You would not have known it by their first-half showing and it could have been worse when Bistrovic went close from distance.
Arsenal still had a two-goal cushion but they knew what was coming in the second half. And sure enough they went further behind in the 50th minute as Nababkin fired home from close range after Cech’s parry from Aleksandr Golovin’s cross.
Cech made up for his error moments later with an excellent stop to deny Golovin.
Arsenal were rattled but Welbeck and Ramsey calmed the nerves.
Wenger praised his team for the resilience they showed in fighting back from a perilous situation.
He said: ‘I feel that maybe we were a bit surprised by the intensity at the start.
‘After that we came back. They scored the second, had a chance for the third.
‘It was a good response from us after the break, the first half the distances were too big. At 2-1 we looked good to get to 2-2 and we did.
‘We were in trouble in the first half. After moving to a back five we were more stable, didn’t concede as many chances. Their second was from distance, but in the box we didn’t give anything away.
‘We have players who can always score and once we got to 2-1 it was a big blow for them and they didn’t recover.’