Wenger insists it's not all over yet

LONDON: Arsene Wenger has insisted that Arsenal's Champions League showdown with Liverpool remains wide open, despite his side's failure to grasp its chances to establish a first-leg lead to take to Anfield.

Dirk Kuyt's equalizer, brilliantly created by Steven Gerrard, cancelled out an Emmanuel Adebayor header at The Emirates and ensured Liverpool will kick off Tuesday's second leg as marginal favorite to progress to the last four.

But Wenger believes the number of chances his side created on Wednesday evening augured well for its chances of performing an encore to its famous second-round win over AC Milan in the San Siro.

"I cannot fault our display," the Frenchman said. "In a game like that you don't create 20 chances, you create four or five and we had four or five while they took the one they had.

"To finish a game like that 1-1 is disappointing. But we produced the performance we wanted and we had the chances to win the game. Liverpool created very little and the whole second half played in their half."

As well as the frustration at missed opportunities, Arsenal was left nursing a justifiable grievance over the referee's failure to award a second-half penalty when Kuyt unbalanced Alexander Hleb with a tug from behind as the midfielder wriggled into space deep in the box.

"It was a blatant penalty just under the eyes of the referee," Wenger complained. "That is a few times that has happened to us now and it is very difficult to accept."

Predictably, his counterpart Rafael Benitez did not see the penalty in such clear cut terms.

"I watched the replay and I think it is not clear," said the Spaniard. "In England it is not a penalty."

The one thing that the managers did agree on was the significance of the run from Gerrard that carried the England midfielder past three Arsenal players before he sent in the cross for Kuyt to equalize three minutes after Adebayor's opener.

"Credit to Gerrard - he showed a touch of class on that goal," Wenger admitted, while Benitez admitted that his side's evening may have evolved very differently without the intervention of its captain.

"Arsenal are a very good team and when you concede a goal and you cannot score soon it becomes very difficult," Benitez said. "It was really important for us to score so fast."

Benitez knows how rare it is for teams to come to Anfield and win when the old stadium is bursting at the seams with fans used to feasting on European glory. But he also recognizes the threat posed by Arsenal's quality on the counterattack.

"They can score in any stadium," Benitez said. "When we play at Anfield with our supporters it makes a massive difference but we will have to defend very well and be very careful about the counters.

"An away goal is always important in the Champions League. We know that if we can score it will be more difficult for them and if you need to play extra time it will be harder for them because we are at home."

Before the second leg, the two sides must play each other in the league, here on Saturday, and Wenger believes the physical impact of that encounter will have a role to play next Tuesday.

"It is a little bit of a survival battle," he said. "The one that lasts out the best to the third game is the better team."

Arsenal's opener came after Jose Reina had touched a Robin van Persie shot around his left-hand post, conceding a corner that Liverpool defended very poorly, allowing Adebayor a free header on the edge of the six-yard box.

The home side's celebrations were quickly curtailed however by the brilliant improvisation of Gerrard at the end of a counterattack that the Liverpool captain had launched himself.

Emmanuel Eboue bought a dummy, Kolo Toure was side-stepped and Mathieu Flamini was left trailing before the Liverpool captain cut the ball back across goal for Kuyt to bundle the equalizer over the line from close range.

Manuel Almunia did well to deny Kuyt a second goal a minute after the restart but the second period was overwhelmingly dominated by Arsenal.

Martin Skrtel cleared Adebayor's hooked shot off the line, Hleb's appeal for a penalty went unheeded and, most frustratingly of all, Cesc Fabregas' goal-bound shot was blocked on the Liverpool line by one of his own teammates, substitute Nicklas Bendtner, in a comical moment that summed up the Gunners' night.

AFP

(China Daily 04/04/2008 page24)