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by DARRYL GREGORY Arsenal will have to wait to qualify for the knockout stages of the Champions League after suffering a late 2-0 defeat at Braga.
Brazilian striker Matheus scored two well-worked, individual goals in the last eight minutes of the match to ensure the Portuguese club still have a chance of qualifying. The Gunners dropped to second in the group and need to match Braga’s result to guarantee Champions League football in 2011.
The away team dominated for most of the match and should have had a penalty after 77 minutes when Carlos Vela latched onto a Marouane Chamakh knockdown before being brought down. Vela was inexplicably booked for diving. This left Arsene Wenger livid before branding the fifth official as “absolutely useless”.
Arsenal enjoyed much of the play in the first half and Theo Walcott could have scored a one on one in the best chance of a dreary first half. He was played through, however the eccentric Felipe in the Braga goal smothered the ball to prevent a goal. The goalkeeper also had to tip over a Fabregas free kick and Walcott fired wide after good work from Nicklas Bendtner.
The second half started as the first had ended, with Arsenal in control. The deep defensive line Braga had enhanced enabled Theo Walcott the space to run at the defenders and he flashed another shot over the bar. Braga were slowly beginning to get a hold of the match and shot wide on two occasions with shots by Alan, and then Matheus. The hosts rewarded their fans in the 82nd minute after a good through ball on the counter left Matheus with just Fabianski to beat; he coolly converted into the bottom corner. As Arsenal pushed for an equaliser The Brazilian bagged his second when a free kick was cleared, he ran onto the ball on the halfway line, shrugged off three defenders and smashed the ball into the net via the crossbar.
If Arsenal hope to win this competition they may well have to sort out the defence away from home. They haven’t kept a clean sheet in an away Champions League match since August the 13th 2008.
The night got worse when Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Eboue both went off injured and are both expected to miss the weekend trip to Aston Villa, the latter expected to be on the sidelines for up to three weeks.
After the match Wenger said he was disappointed with the result and acknowledged that Arsenal were unlucky with reference to the penalty incident. The Arsenal manager made seven changes from the side that were beaten by Tottenham and said: “Some players were tired, we have to rotate.”
Johan Djourou admitted that the team needs to wake up and focus in order to qualify to the knockout stages. Arsenal face Partizan Belgrade on December the 8th at the Emirates stadium and must match Braga if they are to qualify.
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