SW, Villareal
Arsenal advanced to their first-ever Champions League final on Tuesday after holding Villarreal to a 0-0 draw, winning the tie 1-0 on aggregate on the back of their first-leg win.
It certainly did not come in a pretty fashion for Arsenal who never once looked dangerous on the attack, or even the counter-attack. Villarreal had several great chances to take the lead and level the tie, and only a save on a penalty by Lehmann kept Arsenal ahead in the tie.
Things did not look promising for Arsenal early on as left-back Mathieu Flamini had to be replaced by Gaël Clichy, a player who has not seen action since November. He immediately joined the fit-again Sol Campbell on the left side of the Gunners defense.
Villarreal produced a dangerous looking attack on 18 minutes with a string of passes that saw a nice quick touch by Marcos Senna find its way to Juan Pablo Sorín, but his shot was a bit tame and was stopped by Arsenal goalkeeper Jens Lehmann.
Much like he did a couple of times in the first, Juan Riquelme delievered a dangerous set piece in the 30th minute, sending in a 32-yard free kick that would have been trouble for Lehmann had a lunging Sorín been able to get a touch to it.
Five minutes from half-time, it was again Villarreal who came close, Guillermo Franco getting a head to a ball in by Javi Venta, but Lehmann was in prime position to knock it away and keep the home side off of the scoreboard.
Arsenal conceded a dangerous free kick on the stroke of half-time and Riquelme nearly made them pay, forcing Lehmann into a save that he was never too comfortable with, the German number one nearly letting the ball squeak through his legs.
The second half started brightly for the home side as the man who has been dangerous in this game, Javi Venta, sent in an inviting cross toward France, but the Mexican’s rising header went agonizingly wide of the far post.
Franco’s head again nearly did the damaged on 54 minutes when a quick cross into the area by Senna bounced up for the Mexican, but the effort was again off target, Franco looking in vain for a foul against Sol Campbell.
It should have been a level tie in the 65th minute when Jens Lehmann evacuated his goal to challenge Franco, but the Mexican laid back for Forlán who missed the target with the goal absolutely gaping.
In the last ten minutes of the game, Villarreal surprisingly didn’t look like a team desperate to score and Arsenal began enjoying short spells of possession for the first time in the entire match, helped by constant giveaways by Senna.
The dangerous play paid off with two minutes to play when José Mari went down in the area under the challenge of Clichy, but the spot kick by Riquelme was saved by a diving Lehmann, perhaps condemning Villarreal to elimination.
Arsenal got their first shot as the match went into injury time as a charging Henry was foiled by a nice save from Mariano Barbosa.
Villarreal threatened not once after that, and the Gunners moved on to the final on 17 May in Paris against either AC Milan or FC Barcelona. It was also Arsenal’s 10th straight clean sheet in the Champions League, albeit a very fortunate one.