First half ends with no score....Juventus 0 : Arsenal 0


Bookings: M Flamini 19 J Reyes 38 and G Chiellini 41


Starting 11
Arsenal


1 - Jens Lehmann, 20 - Philippe Senderos, 28 - Kolo Toure, 27 - Emmanuel Eboue, 16 - Mathieu Flamini, 9 - José Antonio Reyes, 8 - Fredrik Ljungberg, 15 - Francesc Fabregas, 13 - Aliaksandr Hleb, 19 - Gilberto, 14 - Thierry Henry


Juventus



1 - Gianluigi Buffon, 28 - Fabio Cannavaro, 3 - Giorgio Chiellini, 6 - Robert Kovac, 19 - Gianluca Zambrotta, 11 - Pavel Nedved, 8 - Emerson, 23 - Giuliano Giannichedda, 17 - David Trezeguet, 9 - Zlatan Ibrahimovic, 18 - Adrian Mutu

Arsenal 2 v 0 Juventus


Cesc Fabregas is 18 years old, and he bossed this game. The guy scored one goal, assisted on the 2nd and is quite simply the best talent I have seen.
Big games want big players, you learn a lot about who has it from the big games, who freezes, who can play, HE HAS IT. You have to pinch yourself to remember how old he is. To be fair this again was a team performance, but I am going single him out, because today he showed we have someone special.


What a phenomenal result this was! Confidence is a big part of football, this team now knows, as do the fans, that there is no reason we can't win this trophy - tonight proves it.


I am now going to go off and have a few beers, with the other Gooners, I hope you all do the same, I will give some form of a match report tomorrow , but its time to celebrate. One thing I will leave you with, all the talk before this game was about Patrick Viera coming back to Highbury, I can only assume that all the talk will now be about Cesc Fabregas.



Enjoy your night Gooners, it was special.

Half-Time at Highbury: Arsenal 1 - Juventus 0.


Thierry Henry takes possession of the ball after an ongoing tussle with Vierra. Henry sends Francesc Fabergas through who sends it home on the 40th minute with a right footed shot from the centre of the box to the bottom left corner!


Mauro Camoranesi gets slapped with a yellow card for Juve in the 23rd minute, in a first half marked by 18 fouls.


Not pretty, but effective for Arsenal.


C'MON GOONERS!


Starting Line:
Arsenal

J Lehmann, E Eboue, K Toure, P Senderos, M Flamini, A Hleb, G Silva, F Fabregas, R Pires, T Henry, J Reyes
Subs: M Almunia, V Diaby, D Bergkamp, R Van Persie, A Song Billong, T Walcott, J Djourou


Juventus

G Buffon, J Zebina, L Thuram, F Cannavaro, G Zambrotta, M Camoranesi, P Vieira, F Emerson, A Mutu, Z Ibrahimovic, D Trezeguet
Subs: C Abbiati, G Chiellini, R Kovac, F Balzaretti, M Blasi, G Giannichedda, M Zalayeta


Ref: Peter Frojdfeldt


Other Game: Half Time Benfice 0-0 Barcelona

More later !!!

Thierry Henry has spoken about the return to Highbury of Patrick Vieira with Juventus for their Champions League clash. The 2 friends spoke on Friday, after the draw was announced. Henry is not disclosing what was discussed, though he rightly expects PV4 to get a big welcome.

I can’t really talk for him about that but I am sure you can imagine what will happen when he steps out on the pitch, the place will go crazy.
He was more than a great servant for the Club. I am sure it will be special for him. But I am sure when he has to put his foot in he will put his foot in.
I did speak to him. Obviously that will stay between us what we said but it is no surprise it will be a special game for him.
That is the way it is. I had the chance to play against Juventus in my Arsenal time and then Patrick, when he leaves, gets to play against Arsenal straight away.

On the game itself Henry was of course confident:

It is 11 v 11 People might fancy Juve to go through because of their history, they are top of their league and they don’t lose that often. But we have shown when you play a game it is on the night.

We respect Juve a hell of a lot but it will be who wants it the most on the night. On the history they are the favourites. But you never know in football.

It's still 2 weeks away, but even now I'm looking forward to this game. I do hope and expect that those Gooners at Highbury on the night will give Vieira a hero's welcome. Just so long as he doesn't leave Highbury happy at the end !

It had to happen! Patrick Vieira will be making a return to Highbury after Arsenal drew Juventus in the quarter-finals of the Champions League.
The first leg is at Highbury and will be on March 28th with the return in Turin the following week on April 5th.


Quarter-Final first leg

Arsenal v Juventus
Tuesday, March 28

Highbury
Kick-off 7.45pm


Quarter-Final second leg

Juventus v Arsenal
Wednesday, April 5

Turin
Kick-off 7.45pm


This will be huge test, but if we can come through it we have an excellent chance of going all the way.


If we can progress, we will play the winners of the tie between Inter Milan and Ajax - who play their 'last-16 second leg' next week - and Villarreal in the semi-finals.


In the other quarter-final ties, Lyon will play AC Milan, and Benfica will face favourites Barcelona.


The draws for the quarter-finals and the semi-finals of the UEFA Champions League were as follows:


Quarter-finals:


Arsenal v Juventus

Lyon v AC Milan
Inter Milan or Ajax v Villarreal

Benfica v Barcelona


First legs to be played March 28 & 29
Second legs to be played April 4 & 5


Semi-finals:


Arsenal/Juventus v Inter Milan or Ajax/Villarreal

Lyon/AC Milan v Benfica/Barcelona


First legs to be played April 18 & 19

Second legs to be played April 25 and 26th