Arsenal survive stiff test at Udinese
Reuters - Wednesday 24 August 2011, 20:57
BERNE - Arsenal teetered on the brink of
elimination before coming from behind to win 2-1 at Udinese and
qualify for the Champions League for the 14th season in a row on
Wednesday.
Leading 1-0 from the first leg, Arsenal trailed 1-0 at
half-time and survived an Antonio di Natale penalty miss with the
score at 1-1 before Theo Walcott scored to lift the pressure.
Twice former European champions Benfica joined them with a
3-1 win over Twente Enschede and Olympique Lyon made it 12
appearances in a row by holding out for a 1-1 draw at Rubin
Kazan in the play-off second legs.
Czech champions Viktoria Plzen qualified for the first time,
beating FC Copenhagen 2-1, and BATE Borisov completed the
line-up by knocking out Sturm Graz.
The five completed the line-up for Thursday's group stage
draw in Monaco.
Trabzonspor were named by UEFA as Turkey's representatives
earlier on Wednesday after Fenerbahce were pulled out by the
Turkish FA over the country's match-fixing scandal.
Arsenal's 3-1 aggregate win was a relief for manager Arsene
Wenger after a difficult start to the season, with injuries
adding to the departures of Cesc Fabregas and Samir Nasri.
"It's relief and pride as well," he told Britain's ITV . "We
had our backs to the wall but there was only one team on the
pitch in the second half.
"We showed great belief in the way we want to play football.
It was very important tonight, not for financial reasons as many
people have been saying, but more because we want to play at the
top level."
Arsenal were over-run for much of the first leg and fell
behind when Di Natale, who had already hit the post, met
Giampiero Pinzi's cross with a looping header in the 39th
minute.
The visitors levelled 10 minutes after the break when
Gervinho tricked his way to the byline and pulled the ball back
for Robin van Persie to score, only for Udinese to be awarded a
penalty for handball minutes later.
MISSED PENALTY
It proved the turning point as Di Natale, top scorer in Serie
A for the past two seasons, saw his effort met with a flying
save by Wojciech Szczesny.
Walcott then settled the tie when he broke clear after a
neat one-two with Bacary Sagna and scored clinically in the 69th
minute.
Benfica, starting with 11 foreign players including eight
South Americans and boosted by a 2-2 away draw last week, scored
three times in the second half with two from new Belgian signing
Alex Witsel and one from Brazilian Luisao.
Costa Rican Bryan Ruiz replied for Twente.
Lyon's progress was far less comfortable at Rubin Kazan
where Bebras Natcho volleyed in Obafemi Martins' pass with 13
minutes left, leaving the Russians one goal from an away goals
win.
But they were left deflated after Bakary Kone was first to
an inswinging corner to head the equaliser three minutes from
time and send Olympique through 4-2 on aggregate.
Plzen, 3-1 up from the away leg, had a fright when Costa
Rica midfielder Christian Bolanos gave visitors FC Copenhagen a
first-half lead.
Marek Bakos knocked home Petr Jiracek's cross from close-range to level in the 67th minute, his sixth goal of the
qualifiers, and Michal Duris struck deep into stoppage-time to
complete a 5-2 aggregate win.
BATE Borisov, held 1-1 at home by Austrian champions Sturm
Graz, looked more comfortable playing away as Aleksandr Volodko
put them ahead nine minutes before halftime
Serbian Marko Simic, one of only two foreign players
starting for the Belarus champions, made the tie safe with the
second in the 70th minute as his side qualified for the second
time.