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CHAMPIONS LEAGUE: GUNNERS SECURE PATH TO GROUP STAGE AFTER 3-0 WIN OVER SPARTA August 30, 2007
(SomaliNet) After a comfortable 3-0 victory over Sparta Prague at the Emirates stadium, Arsenal secured their path into Thursday's draw for the Champions League group stages.
In a ‘bewitching’ move, Czech midfielder Tomas Rosicky scored early on against his old side, while Fabregas and Eduardo struck late on to give the Gunners the win on the night and send them through 5-0 on aggregate.
It was a much changed Arsenal side fielded by manager Arsene Wenger. Midfielders Francesc Fabregas and Alexander Hleb were left on the bench, as was Emanuel Adebayor.
Abou Diaby came into the midfield, with Theo Walcott getting a rare start on the right wing. Eduardo da Silva made his European debut for Arsenal, partnering Robin van Persie up front.
Arsenal controlled the match right from the start, and it only took eight minutes for Arsenal to pick up where they left off in Prague, where they won 2-0 in the first leg.
Walcott, who was given too much space for much of the first half, squared the ball from the right for the oncoming Rosicky. The Czech international, an ex-Sparta Prague player, timed his run to perfection to stroke home past goalkeeper Postulka with his right foot.
Replays showed that van Persie appeared to handle the ball, under duress from a defender, early on in the build up to the goal, but none of the officials saw it.
Arsenal bossed the rest of the half, with Abou Diaby giving a good showing in midfield. His interceptions, shielding and turning defence into attack were all reminiscent of Patrick Vieira.
He helped ensure that Stepan Kulic's wide shot from the edge of the box was about the only significant chance the Czech's had all half.
Sparta began the second half in much more convincing style, perhaps motivated by the news that their neighbours Slavia Prague were beating Ajax in their own qualifying game.
For all their bluster, however, their best chance came from a dangerous flick-on from a corner, which Manuel Almunia reacted to in time to palm it away and clear.
Wenger brought on Adebayor, Fabregas and Denilson, and those three all contributed to rounding off the victory in style.
With eight minutes remaining, Eduardo left the full back Pospech for dead on the left wing and break into the box. He pulled the ball back to Fabregas, who struck low from the edge of the box into the bottom left corner to double his side's lead.
Then, one minute from the end, Adebayor and Denilson combined well on the right hand side, and Eduardo turned scorer by poking home Denilson's cross to open his European scoring for Arsenal.-Eurosport