Twente 0-2 Arsenal
(Gallas 33, Adebayor 82)
Arsenal are on course for their 11th consecutive appearance in the UEFA Champions League group stage after second-half goals from William Gallas and Emmanuel Adebayor secured victory at FC Twente.
It was competition debutants Twente who were first to threaten when Romano Denneboom headed wide at the far post.
Arsenal had not settled, two corners inside the opening quarter the sum total of their attacking efforts, and they almost fell behind when Denneboom swept past Denilson into the penalty area only to slice high and wide.
Arsenal responded, albeit ambitiously, as 17-year-old summer signing Aaron Ramsey's long-distance effort sailed over.
Denneboom was proving a handful and it was his pass which sprung the visitors' offside trap nine minutes before half-time, but one-on-one with Almunia, Marko Arnautovic's first touch let him down.
Arsenal still had not slipped into gear, their best chance of the half being a Bacary Sagna shot wide after Twente goalkeeper Sander Boschker had spilled Clichy's effort.
Twente continued to look the more assured after the restart, yet out of nothing, Arsenal took the lead. Van Persie's free-kick from the right was allowed to run on by the deep lying Twente defence leaving Gallas to bundle in from close range.
Buoyed by their lead, Arsenal assumed control and added a second when Theo Walcott latched on to a long ball over the top to sqaure for Adebayor to slot under Boschker.
Link to Adebayor Goal (bottom of page).
No comments:
Post a Comment