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Camden Sports - by STEVE BARNETT
Published: 12 March 2009

Arsenal ride their luck in Rome

Eduardo’s blunder not enough to see Gunners out of Champions League

Champions League
Roma 1, Arsenal 0
(Arsenal win 6-7 pens)

MANUEL Almunia was the hero as Arsenal survived a dreaded penalty shoot out against Roma last night (Wednesday) to book their place in the last eight of the Champions League.
After a lacklustre 120 minutes at the Stadio Olimpico, it came down to the 12-yard lottery for a place in the quarter-finals of Europe’s premier competition.
In a nail-biting finale, Eduardo saw his penalty saved by Doni as the home side took an early advantage. Robin van Persie, Theo Walcott, Denilson, Samir Nasri, Kolo Toure, Bacary Sagna and Abou Diaby all kept their cool from the spot in what seemed an endless ordeal.
But it was Almunia’s save to deny Mirko Vucinic and Max Tornetto’s penalty miss that brought the biggest cheers from the travelling fans as Arsenal sealed a nerve-wracking 7-6 victory.
The Gunners went into the game knowing that all they needed to do was avoid defeat after a van Persie penalty gave the north Londoners a one goal lead in the first-leg.
But they got off to the worst possible start when poor defending allowed Francesco Totti’s low cross to find Juan, who slotted home from close range to level the scores on aggregate after only 10 minutes.
The Gunners were lucky to make it to penalties after Rodrigo Taddei was brought down in the box by Gael Clichy for what looked a clear penalty on the stroke of half-time.
But Arsenal rode their luck, and with the help of Almunia it paid off as they joined Manchester United, Chelsea and Liverpool in the quarter-finals.

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