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The Guardian - UK

Sport

Paul Doyle and Barry Glendenning

Champions League review: imperious Monaco, Arsenal implode and brittle City

In praise of Monaco

Much has been written about Arsenal’s failings and we can be fairly certain there’s plenty more opprobrium in the pipeline, so let’s use this platform to salute the courage, strength and indefatigability of their conquerers Monaco, who arrived at the Emirates missing five first team regulars, including their suspended captain Jérémy Toulalan. Disciplined, composed, assured, defensively solid, clinical and incredibly well organised, the visitors were everything Arsenal were not and in Fabinho had the game’s standout player. Patrolling the space in front of his back four, the 21-year-old Brazilian provided a passable imitation of the wrecking ball Arsenal fans have been pleading with their manager to bring on board in a bid to bolster a brittle defence whose myriad shortcomings were once again highlighted last night. Not bad for a player who is by trade a right-back.

Leonardo Jardim’s team arrived at the Emirates with a reputation for being pedestrian and dull, but proved anything but as they clinically eviscerated their hosts with the speed and precision of skilled serial killers, diligently biding their time in the first half before instilling foreboding and then outright horror either side of the interval en route to a thoroughly deserved 3-1 win. “Arsenal have excellent individuals, but this is a team sport and we were able to render them harmless,” mused Jardim afterwards. “We were very organised, but also able to attack with quality. Nobody thought this was possible, and we did it. But the task in the second leg still remains. We’ve won nothing yet, we just took an advantage. Football is also art - you have to know how to attack, how to defend. My team is very balanced.”

By contrast, Arsène Wenger’s team is about as well-balanced as Madonna being yanked down a staircase mid-performance at the Brit Awards and while the manager was understandably withering in his post-match assessment of his players’ efforts, he must ship much of the blame for needlessly abandoning his normal caution by fielding a gung-ho starting XI that suggested he was hoping to put the tie beyond Monaco with a leg to spare. He now has no choice but to take the game to the Ligue 1 side at the Stade Louis II, but history suggests the damage already done is irreparable. BG

Monaco celebrate — Monaco’s head coach Leonardo Jardim congratulates Layvin Kurzawa after Monaco’s first leg win last night. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP

The perils of over-confidence

With the notable exception of one spookily prescient and sagacious commentator on the Guardian podcast Football Weekly, almost to a man and woman the British media seemed to presume that Arsenal would have little or no difficulty swatting aside Monaco to qualify for the quarter-finals for the first time in five seasons. Indeed, such was the prevailing mood of extreme confidence that even the grounded-bordering-on-relentlessly-pessimistic proprietor of the excellent Arseblog bullishly seemed to think victory for his team was a formality.

He was not the only one. Sky’s pundits patronised Monaco to within an inch of their life in the build-up to last night’s kick-off, while few if any written previews seemed to even entertain the possibility that Arsenal might lose against a team that had conceded just one goal in six Champions League group stage matches this season.

Considering Monaco’s defensive parsimony and Arsenal’s propensity for blasting themselves in the foot in the most comical fashion, it’s difficult to know what exactly inspired such certainty and one doesn’t need the benefit of 20-20 hindsight to argue this particular humiliation was in the post. Monaco may be fourth in Ligue 1 with a reputation for being boring, but even before last night’s match it was obvious they are no mugs. And while Arsenal came into this game on the back of three straight victories, two of those - against Leicester City and Crystal Palace - were fairly lucky. The victory those wins bookended, while impressive, were only against Championship opposition. Its cheerleaders regularly laud the Premier League as the most exciting, high quality and competitive in the world, but the consistent naivety of two of its best teams, Manchester City and Arsenal, against more streetwise European opposition suggests it might not be as great as they think. BG

Arsene Wenger — Oh, Arsenal. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP

Dortmund v Juventus too close to call

The Juventus-Borussia Dortmund tie is tantalisingly poised. Since the dawn of the Champions League, the proportion of teams who have progressed to the next stage after losing 2-1 away in the first leg is almost exactly 50%. So history, like a degree in Sanskrit or a punnet of fresh strawberries, is no help whatsoever in indicating how the second leg will go. Except for the most recent history, of course, as Tuesday’s first leg offered clear clues to the strategies both teams will adopt in Germany.

Massimiliano Allegri won the first leg by beating Dortmund at their own game and it is an approach that suit them away from home too. Juventus retreated deep and gifted the visitors the majority of possession while denying them the space to release their speedy forwards. Instead it was Juventus who struck twice on the break, with the rapid Álvaro Morata emerging as the game’s key player and justifying the decision to pick him ahead of Fernando Llorente. Dortmund, meanwhile struggled to make clever use of their possession and there was a desperation to some of their balls in search of Pierre Emerick-Aubameyang, Ciro Immobile and Marco Reus. It took a slip from Giorgio Chiellini to enable Reus to plunder an away goal for the Germans.

Andrea Pirlo had to limp off with calf trouble in the first half and is a doubt for the second leg but even that may not be ruinous for Juve’s chances, as they contained Dortmund better after the veteran’s replacement by Roberto Pereyra and their more direct play going forward stemmed the visitors’ attacks and bypassed their high pressing. Allegri may have failed in his declared objective of preventing Dortmund from leaving Italy with an away goal, but he can be confident his Serie A leaders can get at least one in Germany. PD

Match report: Juventus 2-1 Dortmund

Juventus v Borussia Dortmund — Juventus midfielder Roberto Pereyra hurdles the outstretched leg of Dortmund’s Nuri Sahin at the Juventus Stadium in Turin. Photograph: Olivier Morin/AFP/Getty Images

Winners and losers

Winners ... Bayer Leverkusen: Amid all the hoopla prompted by Arsenal’s defeat, Bayer Leverkusen’s unexpected win against Atlético Madrid seems to have slipped under the radar. At home they may have been, but the Bundesliga’s struggling sixth-placed side were not expected to prevail and travel to Spain with a goal, let alone a 1-0 lead: Hakan Calhanoglu’s splendid goal was the first conceded by Diego Simeone’s side in five Champions League games. With a clean sheet, a fair wind and several key Atlético players sitting out the second leg on the naughty step, Roger Schmidt’s side have given themselves every chance of causing a seismic upset. BG

Losers ... Manchester City: The way Manchester City came back from the brink of extinction in the group phase, especially their accomplished victory in Roma, suggested they might have finally cracked this Champions League lark. But the way they unravelled in the face of admittedly wonderful Barcelona play on Tuesday, especially in the first half, showed they are still mentally brittle at this level. Too many mistakes, too much rashness, too little intensity too often.

Yet Joe Hart’s late penalty save, Lionel Messi’s amazing miss from the rebound and the return of Yaya Touré mean City still have a fair chance of progressing. It will be interesting to see whether Manuel Pellegrini uses the team’s three Premier League matches between now and the second leg to develop a partnership between Sergio Agüero and Wilfried Bony, or will he play Agüero as sparingly as possible in order to preserve him for the showdown in the Nou Camp, Because without him they are certainly doomed. PD

It’s stats time again

3 - No team has lost a European Cup/CL first leg knockout tie at home by 2 goals and progressed to the next round since Ajax in 1969. Task.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 25, 2015

First EVER #UCL red card for Atlético Madrid (in 42nd match). Only Celtic had played more matches (49) from debut before receiving 1st red.
— Infostrada Sports (@InfostradaLive) February 25, 2015

8 - The keeper dived left in the last eight Leo Messi penalties saved by a keeper in all competitions. Intuition pic.twitter.com/XYzngURsRH
— OptaJose (@OptaJose) February 24, 2015

Geoffrey Kondogbia is the first French player to score a CL goal for Monaco in more than 10 years, since Gaël Givet on 8 December 2004.
— Infostrada Sports (@InfostradaLive) February 25, 2015

4 - Marco Reus has scored in each of his last four CL games (5 goals). Prodigy.
— OptaJean (@OptaJean) February 24, 2015

Man City - Barça: Suarez has now scored 5 goals from his last 6 shots on target on Joe Hart in all competitions (incl. World Cup). #MCFCB
— Infostrada Sports (@InfostradaLive) February 24, 2015

200 - Barcelona have now conceded 200 goals in the Champions League, in this, their 200th game. Neat.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 24, 2015

1 - Manchester City have only kept one clean sheet in 13 home Champions League games (2-0 v Bayern Munich, December 2011). Test.
— OptaJoe (@OptaJoe) February 24, 2015