Heartbreak.

Heartbreak

After a wonderful season in the Champions League, the Gunners were shot down by 2 quick fire shots, one by Eto’o and the other by Belletti. Watched the match with Giri and a bunch of others in the hostel, and was rooting for an ‘unlikely’ Arsenal win from the word go. Ra, normally very reserved about sports and especially about football was infected by my enthusiasm and was watching may be her first football match when I have not been around.

The Gunners started off brightly, and the king should have put us ahead twice within a few minutes of the start. After the first 10 minutes, Barca started to look threatening, and a magical ball from the Magician let the sharp shooter Eto’o through on goal. Lehman charged and brought him down and got a deserved red card. This ended Pires swan song for the Arsenal in most probably the last match he will play for us as he was sacrificed to bring on Almunia. Almunia was called on to save the ensuing free kick and though he looked shaky on the clearances, he started off confidently enough.

The magical moment was 8 minutes from the end of the half, when Sol rose above the defenders and guided a inch perfect Henry free kick to the goal, leaving Valdes stranded.

The under-dogs, down to 10 men had taken the lead. Sol, meaning sunlight in Spanish had bought darkness on to the giants.

Arsenal held on till the break and the Arsenal faithful were given a glimmer of hope. This may be our year, we felt.

But it was not to be. Barca bought on their substitutes after the break, and the fresh legs were proving difficult to contain. Larsens introduction was pivotal. He laid on a perfect ball for Eto’o to race through and fire home from an acute angle. Five minutes later the Swede lay on the pass for Belletti to thump home a shot that cannoned into the net off the ankle of Almunia. Could Almunia have done something better, could he have made himself seem larger, spread his legs a bit wider, these questions will continue to haunt the Gunners for some time to come, but the match was not yet over.

The inclusion of Reyes and Flamini brought on some speed to the tiring midfield, and off went Fabregas who gave his all to the cause.

Arsenal tried their best to rebound but tired and outnumbered, they offered little in way of scoring in the last 10 minutes.

Notes;

· Horrendously biased referee? One of the linesmen was photographed in a Barca colour the day before. The referee seemed biased towards Barca.

· We are in the Champions League the next year. The Emirates Stadium is ready. Will Henry stay to guide the young team into the new era?

· Can we go one better next year?

· Lehman "It's annoying. But life goes on." Will it ever be the same? We have waited for ages for this chance, when will we come up the next time?

· Henry "Some of the referee's decisions today were horrendous. Next time I should learn how to dive maybe but I'm not a woman so I stay on my feet.” Is it worth it?

· Wenger "The hardest thing for me to accept is that their first goal was offside - when you go down to ten men, this is hard to accept. When you consider the replacement of the original linesman and the goal being offside, it is very hard to take this seriously."

For me, heartbreak.