ACTUALITE |
31.10.2001
Arsenal through but their away form takes a further battering
GELSENKIRCHEN,
Arsenal lost 3-1 to Schalke 04 here on Tuesday in another red-faced performance on the road by the Gunners who had thankfully already qualified for the Champions League second round./p
The trend of their hapless performance was virtually sealed early on when Youri Mulder scored after two minutes and Arsenal`s Oleg Luzhny was sent off for appearing to hit German international Jorg Bohme with an arm a quarter hour later.
Arsenal finished second in Group C with nine points, three behind Greeks Panathinaikos who lost 1-0 to Real Mallorca, who had the consolation of the UEFA Cup after finishing third.
Admittedly Arsenal were without Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry, David Seaman, Tony Adams and Giovanni van Bronckhorst and the side played as though they were a second-string outfit.
Sylvain Wiltord managed to find the net in a late consolation but by then the 1997 UEFA Cup champions from the Ruhr had already beaten keeper Richard Wright three times.
Arsenal`s performances away in Europe have been poor including four straight 1-0 losses before this tie and it was the second time they have had a man sent off.
Arsene Wenger`s men were soon chasing the game. Robert Pires managed to lose possession and the ball eventually fell to Bohme whose cross cleared the far post.
Danish striker Ebbe Sand did well to divert the ball back into the box and Mulder had no problems finding the net. Moments later, Sand himself fired the ball wide.
Then came Luzhny`s antics with Bohme which sent the match on a slippery path downhill for the Gunners.
Bohme sat down in the Schalke penalty area and a linesman ran on to alert Polish referee Ryszard Wojcik who booked the German before sending off the Ukrainian.
Schalke settled the match as a contest when Belgian winger Sven Vermant swept home after Mulder had wrong-footed Matthew Upson by letting Andy Moller`s cross run across him from left to right in the 60th minute.
Four minutes later, after Wiltord and Pires messed up a free-kick deep in Schalke territory, Sand led a lightning breakaway and put in Moller on Arsenal`s exposed left flank to comfortably beat the helpless Wright.
Wiltord saw his first shot blocked but kept his head to find space and put away the rebound in the 71st minute but by that time the contest was already over.
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