Here’s Amy Lawrence’s match report
Full-time: Arsenal 3-1 Cologne
What threatened to be a night of embarrassment for Arsenal turned into a highly satisfying encounter. The change was triggered at half-time, when Wenger switched personnel and formation, and his players found some gumption and zest. They scored some lovely goals and ran out deserving winners.
87 min: Wonderful by Arsenal! They swept from one end of the pitch to the other with artful slickness, Giround and Wilshere both contributing perfect heel-flicked passes before Maitland-Niles fed Sanchez on the left-hand side of the box. The Chilean tries an outrageous dink over the keeper ... but ti just drops wide of the far post. What a beautiful ending that would have been to a marvellous move.
84 min: Arsenal are cruising now. Wilshere, who had brought guile to central midfield, exchanges passes with Elneny before a flowing move founders at the edge of the Cologne box.
GOAL! Arsenal 3-1 Cologne (Bellerin 81)
That should seal a rousing comeback! Kolasinac bombs down the left and pulls a low pass back to the edge of the area. Wilshere wrongfoots the entire defence by selling them a dummy, allowing the ball to run through to Walcott. He takes a touch and falls over Welbeck-style as he gets off a scruffy shot, but when the keeper only parries, Bellerin follows up to thrash into the net from 10 yards.
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79 min: An arsenal corner is headed clear. Well, not quite: it’s headed to just outside the area, where Elneny meets the dropping ball with a fierce volley. A defender hurls himself in front of it to make a block.
76 min: Wilshere - did I mention he came on for Iwobi in the 68th minute? - bisects the Cologne defence with a low ball through to Sanchez, who’s allowed to play on despite being about three yards offside. The keeper rushes out to close him down and he tries to curl it over him into the far corner. But he gets his connection all wrong and wafts the ball wide.
Cologne substitution: Osako on, Klutner on. That’s an attacker for a defender.
74 min: Freekick from 30 yards for Arsenal, who are bossing this now. Sanchez curls it over the wall and hits the target. But it was far too gentle a shot to beat Horn.
71 min: Cordoba turns past Mertesacker on half-way and then charges past Monreal and towards the box. He shoots low and hard from 16 yards, but Ospina bats a way his shot at the near post.
69 min: Bellerin receives a pass and sh ... moves to turbo-speed, zooming forward at a cracking lick. In other news, typos are a lovable sign of high energy and an eagerness to satisfy readers.
GOAL! Arsenal 2-1 Cologne (Sanchez 67)
He’s back and he’s still brilliant! Sanches runs wide to collect an over-hit pass from Iwobi. Then he shimmies his way infield, across the edge of the area and, from near the D, sends a delicious curler past a befuddled keeper and into the top corner!
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62 min: Maitland-Niles plays a dinky one-two to slice through the heart of the Cologne defence. The youngsters then tries to feint his way past the keeper, but Horn read his intentions and dives at his feet to make a vital interception.
60 min: This time it’s Bellerin who gives the ball away in midfield, and he doesn’t get back in time to prevent a Cologne shot. Bittencourt has a pop from 25 yards. It’s struck hard and true, but too close to Ospina, who pats it down before picking it up.
58 min: A loose pass by Iwobi in midfield allows Cologne to throb forward again. But Bellerin shifts to turbo-speed to dash back and rescue his team.
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55 min: Arsenal are working up a fine head of steam. Iwobi and Sanchez combine in a flowing move before the Chilean sweeps the ball wide to Bellerin. He whips in a vicious low cross. A defender stabs it off the foot off Walcott.
52 min: Kolasinac, endearing himself still further to Arsenal fans, exchanges pass with Sanchez down the left before cutting the ball back from the byline. Cologne manage to force the ball back out of the box but Sanchez retrieves it and scoops it back in. Iwobi charges in to meet it with a flying volley from the edge of the area. It’s a respectable attempt but whizzes a few yards over the bar.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-1 Cologne (Kolasinac 48)
Another clever run by Walcott was rewarded with a dainty chipped pass by Elneny. Walcott’s first touch took him away from goal, towards the left-hand side of the box. He tries to cross but it was blocked. However the ball ricocheted to Kolasinac, who whacked it first time past the keeper and into the far corner! Wenger’s half-time changes paid off in style: give that man a new two-year contract!
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47 min: To a soundtrack of cloudy crooning Germans and silently sulking Gooners, Arsenal cobble together an attack. Sanchez tip-toes between two opponents and then clips a lovely ball over the top for Walcott, who takes it down on the right-hand corner of the box. It’s a fine shooting chance ... until the assistant referee raises his flag for offside. Bad decision! Walcott had timed his run well.
46 min: Wenger has made a substitution: Holding off, Kolasinac on. Holding struggled, to be fair, and the personnel change also means a formation change, as Arsenal switch from a back three to a flat back four, the Bosnian going to left-back.
Practically outnumbered by German fans in their own stadium and outwitted on the pitch by a side that has lost every match it has played in the Bundesliga this season, Arsenal are having a mare, all told. True, they are not at full-strength because Wenger has rested key players for this weekend’s trip to Stamford Bridge (more larks ahoy!), but this has been a deflating performance so far. The defence has been constantly stretched, the midfield uninspired and the attackers blunt. Walcott has been dreadful weak and aimless on the ball, and Sanchez erratic. Giroud has put himself about but got meagre service - a couple of good crosses have reached him, though, and he failed to make the most of them. Arsenal have the ability to overturn this deficit but will need to improve a lot to do so. As things stand, you can just about imagine the hosts scoring but Cologne look good for another goal on the break.
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Half-time: Arsenal 0-1 Cologne
The boos from the home fans are only slightly louder than the cheers of the travelling horde.
45+1 min: Holding is berated by home supporters when, after being invited to carry the ball forward, he turns around and plays the ball back to Mertesacker. But he’s not been the only arsenal player short of ideas today. They’ve had a lot of possession but done little with it.
45 min: Monreal hoiks over a decent cross from the left by-line. But Rausch clears. They’ve defended very well so far.
42 min: Arsenal, low on ideas, pass the ball around in front of the massed Cologne team, posing no problem. “Fighting at NY Jets games occurs because the stakes and expectations are so low it’s rather easy to take offense,” suggests Ken Houghton. “Especially for a team that hasn’t seriously contended for the championship of its sport since 1969. Arsenal fans should be able to relate.”
40 min: Cologne win a corner. But for a moment it looked like they might get more, as Bittencourt led another lightning counter. Elneny got back well to stick his cross from the left out for the corner. Which is then cleared at the near post.
38 min: A good burst by Iwobi, who wins the ball mid-way inside the Cologne half and darts forward before flipping the ball wide to Sanchez. The Chilean chips a nice cross over to Giroud, who leaps above his marker to get his head to it. But from eight yards out, he nods wide.
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36 min: Walcott is shunted off the ball easily down the right wing, allowing Cologne to mount another raid. Jojic crosses from the left - and Iwobi calmly defuses the situation at the back post by chesting the ball back to Ospina.
Cologne substitution: Hector hobbles off, seemingly having injured an ankle after a challenge with Ospina. Jojic replaces him.
32 min: The ball bounces loose to Elneny some 20 yards from goal. He lashes it with the outside of his boot, seven to ten yards wide.
30 min: Rausch curls a lovely low cross from the left behind the Arsenal defence. Zoller launches himself at it, but Ospina gets to it first.
28 min: Klunter joins in an attack down the left and then lets fly with a hopeful shot from 25 yards. It’s deflected wide, which is lucky for him because it was a weak shot and would have been saved easily if it had reached the goal. The ensuing corner is miscued ... and suddenly Arsenal are racing forward on a counter-attack. But Sanchez plays an uncharacteristically sloppy pass as he tries to find Giroud.
25 min: Elneny spanks a long diagonal ball wide to Bellerin on the right. The Spaniard crosses early towards Giroud. But Rausch read his intentions and intercepted well.
23 min: A fine sliding tackle by Holding on half-way sends the ball towards Iwobi, who controls (possibly with the help of an arm) and then clips a nice pass through to Walcott, dashing into the right-hand side of the box. Pressure from Rausch is enough to discombobulate Walcott, who slashes at his shot from 15 yards, sending the ball trickling wide.
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22 min: Cologne stretch the hosts with another rapid counter-attack, but Arsenal get a reprieve when Cordoba mis-hits a attempted cross from the left.
20min: Bellerin hurtles down the right and digs out a decent cross towards the penalty spot. Giroud rises well and applies a good downward header, but it’s straight at Horn, who stoops to save without bother.
18 min: Cologne’s strategy of sitting deep and then springing forward when they get the ball seems to be confounding Arsenal.
15 min: Dozy defending by Arsenal! Zoller drifts between Mertesacker and Holding to get on the end of a humdrum pass from deep. He takes the ball down and shapes to shoot, but Holding atones by charging back to prevent him getting off a clear effort.
12 min: An Arsenal attack runs aground in the Cologne box. Bittencourt launches a rapid counter-attack by pinging a 40-yard pass towards Cordoba. The striker holds it up long enough to play a return pass to Bittencourt, who sprinted forward to try to finish the attack he started. But he curls a shot high and wide from 25 yards.
10 min: Sanchez clips a freekick into the area. Giroud gets a good header to it from 16 yards out. But Horn tips it over; and it wouldn’t have mattered anyway, because the whistle had gone for offside. Behind the Cologne goal, meanwhile, away fans have lit bright red flares ....
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GOAL! Arsenal 0-1 Cologne (Cordoba 9)
What a goal! Ospina rushed out of his box to clear a ball over the top. He doesn’t clear it very far, though. A cologne player blocks it about 40 yards out and the ball squirts to Cordoba, who, with his back to goal, spins deftly and sends the ball over the head of the stranded Ospina and into the net! Cologne fans celebrate all around the ground.
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7 min: Busy pressing by Sanchez forces an error from a Cologne defender, who recovers quickly enough to scramble the ball away. A sign, there, that Sanchez is not too disheartened by his transfer blues.
5 min: It’s a suitably scrappy fare so far, but at a pleasingly high pace. “$5 says the fights David Dein has witnessed at Jets games are Jets fans expressing frank opinions to each other,” suggests Preston G Foolson. Are you saying Jets fans should be segregated from each other?
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3 min: Holding takes a heavy touch inside his own half and gives the ball away. In desperate he takes down his opponent, who was about to sprint clear with the ball. Thats a blatant yellow card offence, but the referee lets Holding off.
2 min: Cologne, clad in a strange bright yellow and dull grey kit, are sitting back early doors, watching Arsenal circulate the ball at arm’s length.
1 min: Sanchez and Giroud get the game going, at last. The atmosphere sounds superb: let’s hope it stays like that. “Apart from the fact Geoff Desouza ignores decades of reasons to justify supporter segregation in British (and other European) grounds, I actually quite like the atmosphere it (usually) generates,” says Brad McMillan. “Some of the best experiences I’ve had were watching dull games enlivened by stupid, pointless and funny verbal wars between opposing sets of fans, fought from their own enclaves within a stadium.”
The teams are on the pitch - and there’s a mighty din all around them, most of it being made by Cologne fans, though a lot of the home fans who have turned up are in fine voice, too.
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“What the police could have done is blocked off the approaches some distance from the stadium and only allowed fans with tickets through. This used to be standard practice on high risk games,” writes David Dein (no, not that one). “Secondly, in response to Geoff DeSouza, I went to a Yankees-Red Sox match recently and there were multiple fights on the concourses, and Jets matches regularly have fights break out so he seems to have had a rather sheltered life.”
“Might I be the first to suggest that the inevitable probe into the reasons behind into this unfortunate state of affairs be deemed a Cologne-oscopy?” quips Grant Tennille.
The latest from the Emirates is that Uefa are saying the game will definitely kickoff at rescheduled time, ie in about 13 minutes. The teams are out on the pitch warming up. Fans appear to be mixed throughout the ground, but fears of more violence seem to have receded. “Doesn’t this just go to show the stupidity of designating home and away sections to begin with?” writes Geoff DeSouza. “North American fans are perfectly content with away fans sitting next to them at all events and nothing like this ever happens.”
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“I thought Arsenal gave European group games to season ticket holders as part of the package, did they flog them to the Köln fans?” wonders Mel Lynam. That’s one possible explanation. With Arsenal season tickets so expensive, it wouldn’t be surprising if some fans tried to make a little money back.
“I’ve been to some 250 to 300 Bundesliga games by now,” announcs Arno Onink. “Mixed seating is more or less common in the Bundesliga. Only at the Gladbach-Köln and Schalke-Dortmund games ‘segregation’ is enforced more heavily. When the authorities knew how many Köln fans were on their way, they could have foreseen this mess.” What do you think they should have done? Turn those fans away at the border? Block their procession in the streets? Create fan zones around the stadium and hope the ticketless visitors be content to stay there?
Meanwhile at the Emirates, prospects of a game kicking off do not appear to be improving ...
FC Koln fans in the Arsenal home end tonight
— Pints and Pyro 🍻 (@PintsandPyro) September 14, 2017
No chance this game is going ahead. pic.twitter.com/DMzwe0VRhe
With no (football) action at the Emirates, BT Sport are showing the Marseille-Knoyaspor tie at the moment. Coincidentally, there were very few fans in the stadium at the designated kickof time there, either, because Marseille fans boycotted the opening minutes in protest at their club’s dreadful start to the season. And why they did stomp into the ground, many of them let off flares and smoke bombs, ensuring that Marseille will be fined heavily. Some supporters also unfurled a banner aimed at the club’s new American owner, Frank McCourt. Their message is clear:
@ChadMoriyama @JaredJMassey @DustinNosler Olympique de Marseille fans are already angry at Frank McCourt. pic.twitter.com/NCcrfdO76n
— Ricardo Antonio (@LevstersTr) September 14, 2017
“The complete same thing happened in Copenhagen when Hannover 96 came to play FC København in the Europa League a couple of years ago,” says Lars Bogegaard. “German fans had bought tickets to the sections, where the most affectionate home fans are located, and they ended up sitting in FC Copenhagen areas. I was there, and it could have gone completely wrong. FC København was fined heavily by Uefa for the ticket shambles.”Perhaps the answer is to set up fan zones around stadiums when Germans teams are visiting, in the hope that fans will be content to watch the match there.
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“I was visiting Hamburg back in February and watched a midweek cup game between Hamburg and Cologne,” writes Steve Blowers. “I sat in the home end but pretty much everywhere in the stadium there were away supporters mixed in with the home support. There was no trouble but it definitely put me on edge the entire game.” In a sense today’s chaos was foreseeable, with over 20,000 (some reports say 30,000) Cologne fans known to be heading towards London despite the official away allocation being only around 3,000. Perhaps the authorities expected those without tickets to watch the match in a London pub, as suggested by Cologne’s manager Peter Stöger. It seems the powers-that-be have been taken by surprise by the number of away fans who’ve managed to get their hands on tickets.
Pretty much everyone you see in this pic are Cologne fans - All those in the Arsenal end. They are everywhere. pic.twitter.com/5ca4X2S8Nt
— Charles Watts (@charles_watts) September 14, 2017
“No doubt there will be a Uefa investigation into what is going on here, but who is likely to be more in trouble?” asks David Wall. “Will the blame be mainly attributed to Koln, for not controlling their supporters, or do Uefa not get involved with what happens outside the stadium, so they’ll largely focus on Arsenal not being able to control access to the Emirates?” Some good questions there, David. BT Sport are suggesting that a lot of Cologne fans who turned up in London without tickets have procured some off touts and are trying to gain access to parts of the stadium reserved for home fans: apparently some have managed to do so and have then tried to join the other Cologne fans in the designated away section. That’s a recipe for chaos, which is what appears to be unfolding, though the extent of it is not clear at present.
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Koln fans in the seats all round the stadium here. Scuffles with police in riot gear in the away end. If this game takes place could be odd
— Barney Ronay (@barneyronay) September 14, 2017
Fans are now trickling into the stadium, but many thousands more are still outside.
Here’s an updated story on the delay from Amy Lawrence at the Emirates Stadium:
By the sounds of things, that one-hour delay to kickoff could be extended: some skirmishes have broken out around the ground as some Cologne fans attempted to force their way into the stadium without tickets.
Kick-off has been postponed by one hour
It seems London wasn’t quite ready for a full-blown outbreak of Europa League fervour: congestion around the Emirates has led to kickoff being delayed by an hour to ensure everyone gets in smoothly and safely. Everyone with tickets, that is: there are reports that most of those Cologne fans are ticketless. Play will now begin at 9.05pm Woolwich time.
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Teams:
Arsenal: Ospina; Holding, Mertesacker, Monreal; Bellerin, Iwobi, Elneny, Maitland-Niles; Walcott, Giroud, Sanchez
Subs: Macey, Mustafi, Kolasinac, Reine-Adelaide, Nelson, Wilshere, Akpom
Cologne: Horn; Bittencourt, Hector, Höger, Zoller; Lehmann; Rausch, Heintz, Meré, Klünter; Cordoba
Subs: Kessler, Sorensen, Risse, Jojic, Osako, Guirassy, J. Horn
Referee: J Estrada (Spain)
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Preamble
Hello and welcome to something unprecedented: an Arsenal match in the Europa League. They’ve been in this tournament’s forerunner, of course, and even reached the final before losing to Galatasary in 2000, but this is their debut in the new-fangled Europa League and it’ll be interesting to see how they tackle it. Will Arsène Wenger treat it as a chore best dispensed with as early as possible, or will he embrace it as an exciting opportunity to land his first ever European trophy and, by the by, to emulate Manchester United and use it as a route back into the Champions League?
Arsenal’s team selection could offer some clues: Wenger is expected to omit several usual starters to preserve them for Sunday’s attempt to rack up an improbable third successive win over Chelsea (following last season’s FA Cup final and this season’s Community Shield). On the other hand, a rejigged lineup will hardly be an indication that Arsenal are taking this tournament lightly, as even with several changes they should be confident of beating Cologne, who have been stinking out the Bundesliga so far this season, with three defeats from their opening three matches. But that hasn’t stopped 20,000 of their fans descending on London for today’s affair. Koln haven’t played a European match for 25 years: try telling this lot that this tournament doesn’t matter.
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