Tuesday, March 28, 2006

Arsenal v Juventus

Defender Sol Campbell has been ruled out of the Arsenal side for their Champions League quarter-final with Juventus on Tuesday night.
Campbell had regained full fitness after nearly two months out for the Gunners, first for a leave of absence after his terrible performance against West Ham on February 1, then for an ankle injury picked up in training.
However Arsene Wenger revealed on Monday that he now has a bruised toe: "Sol has a small setback following a bad tackle in training on Sunday.
"We think it will be 48 hours. It is just bad bruising on his toe, it is nothing major.
"I had planned to involve him tomorrow night, but cannot do as he could not practice today."
Robin van Persie comes back into the side after his long lay-off, but Freddie Ljungberg has been ruled out with a calf injury and Jose Antonio Reyes is a concern due to a hamstring strain.
Togo striker Emmanuel Adebayor is cup-tied following his move from Monaco, while Ashley Cole (ankle), Pascal Cygan (hamstring), Arturo Lupoli (foot) and long-term absentee Lauren (knee) are all still missing.
Meanwhile Juventus will be without their all-time leading goalscorer Alessandro del Pierro who is suffering with a thigh injury.
The striker left the field after just 15 minutes of Juve's 1-1 draw with Roma on Saturday, but is expected to return for the second leg on 5 April.
Juve can call on Zlatan Ibrahimovic to partner David Trezeguet up front in the place of del Pierro, but more worrying for the Serie A leaders will be the absence of Pavel Nedved, who will miss the game through suspension.
Squads:
Arsenal: Lehmann, Almunia, Eboue, Toure, Senderos, Hleb, Flamini, Fabregas, Gilberto, Pires, Henry, Djourou, Song, Bergkamp, van Persie, Reyes, Walcott, Diaby.
Juventus: Buffon, Chiellini, Vieira, Kovac, Pessotto, Emerson, Ibrahimovic, Balzaretti, Camoranesi, Trezeguet, Mutu, Zambrotta, Blasi, Thuram, Bonnefoi, Giannichedda, Olivera, Zalayeta, Zebina, Cannavaro, Abbiati.
Verdict: Nobody gave Arsenal a hope going into the tie against Real Madrid, but in the end they showed just what they are capable of when they're up against a real challenge. However Juventus are a much better side than Madrid at the moment, and so the Gunners will have to raise the bar once again. The question is how high can they go? A draw looks likely, but Arsenal could shade it by a goal.

0 Comments:

Post a Comment

<< Home