[需要有人翻译, 期待出场名单的放出]
Panathinaikos v Arsenal
UEFA Champions League
Wednesday, October 20, 2004
Kick-off 7.45pm GMT
Measuring sticks come no better than this.
Arsène Wenger returns to the Apostolos Nikolaidis Stadium tonight three years after a humbling 1-0 Champions League defeat at the hands of Panathinaikos. Georgios Karagounis scored the only goal in the 25th minute that night to give the Greeks a famous victory on Matchday 3.
Arsenal are at the same stage of this season’s competition but they return to Athens a very different side. Champions of England, 49 Premiership games unbeaten and playing arguably the best football in Europe. However they have yet to come near conquering the Continent and their opening two results, a hard-fought 1-0 home win over PSV and a patchy 1-1 draw in Rosenborg, suggests the side is still working through the gears in this competition.
Wenger wants to see more from his side tonight, not least to prove that they are progressing in the way he imagines.
“It will be a good measure to see how far we have come from three years ago,” said Wenger.
“It was a non-inspirational Arsenal performance last time and a frustrating night. I feel everything went against us and we did not control our nerves enough. I want to see how much better we are now.
“I am confident we are much better. We did not score away from home as much then and we are more attacking now.
“If you look in the Premier League we certainly are, but in the Champions League there is more to show.”
The absence of Patrick Vieira (ankle), Gilberto (vertebrae), Manuel Almunia (shin), Justin Hoyte (hamstring), Gael Clichy (ankle) and Dennis Bergkamp has stretched Arsenal’s resources. They have even brought untried Swedish midfielder Sebastian Larsson as part of the travelling squad.
Still they have Edu and Freddie Ljungberg back from international duty and a hamstring strain respectively. Expect them to start in place of Vieira and Bergkamp.
Athens is a city still vibrant from the Olympics and the country as a whole country is still patting itself on the back, in both excitement and astonishment, after their victory at Euro 2004.
Under coach Itzhak Shum, Panathinaikos were as defensively-orientated as the national side during the summer and, even though he has had just one game in charge, his successor Zdenek Scasny is unlikely to tear down their defensive walls tonight. Wenger is aware of the way they’ll play and he is wary.
“It is a bit like when you play a South American team,” he said. “They don’t play at an English pace, they try to get you to play at their pace. They know how to slow the game down. They suck you in and hit you on the break. Then when they are 1-0 up they know how to slow the game down again.
“For us it is a nervous test. We must stick to our game and not get upset. We want to get them to play at our pace not play at their pace. That is one of the big tests tonight.
“We know they play on a small ground with a hot atmosphere. Football is on a high over here at the moment. But I always think when the game starts it is down to the quality of the passing and tackling.”
Undoubtedly Arsenal have the quality. The issue is whether they can make it count tonight and wipe away the memory of that “non-inspirational” display three years ago.
| Team |
P |
W |
D |
L |
F |
A |
Pts |
| Arsenal |
2 |
1 |
1 |
0 |
2 |
1 |
4 |
| Panathinaikos |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
2 |
2 |
3 |
| PSV Eindhoven |
2 |
1 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
3 |
| Rosenborg |
2 |
0 |
1 |
1 |
1 |
2 |
1 |
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[此贴子已经被作者于2004-10-20 20:22:17编辑过]
