In less than two weeks, Arsenal went from contending in three cup competitions to being alive in none.
On Feb. 25, the Gunners lost to Chelsea, 2-1, in the English League Cup final and then were bounced out of the FA Cup three days later by Blackburn Rovers, 1-0, in a replay. On Wednesday night was the biggest shock of all: Arsenal’s exit from the UEFA Champions League, where a 1-1 tie with PSV Eindhoven at the Emirates Stadium sent the Dutch club through to the quarterfinals, 2-1, on aggregate.
“It’s a massive disappointment for us,” Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger said. “We didn’t take our chances in the first half and it was a repetition of the first leg. We were not sharp physically and lacked quality in the final third. Alex won the game for them on his own tonight, he dominated in the air and kept them tight at the back.”
The Brazilian defender turned from villain to hero, scoring on own goal in the 58th minute to even the series at 1-1 before deciding it on a header off Ecuadoran Edison Mendez‘s free kick seven minutes from time.
“The biggest compliment I can give is the way we survived after the unlucky own goal,” said first-year PSV coach Ronald Koeman. “Arsenal didn’t continue to pressure us and it seemed like they were doubting themselves a bit.”
The game set a record for foreigners starting in a Champions League game. Phillip Cocu was the only Dutchman player in PSV’s starting lineup, while Arsenal did not start one English player in a game that had 16 different nationalities in the starting 22.
Just like Alex in the Arsenal-PSV series, Bayern Munich and AC Milan got key goals from Brazilian to reach the quarterfinals.
Brazilian defender Lucio scored what proved to be the deciding goal for Bayern, which stormed back from a 3-2 defeat in Madrid to beat Real, 2-1, and qualify on the away goals rule after their series ended, 4-4, on aggregate. Lucio headed in Bayern’s second in the 66th minute after Dutch striker Roy Makaay put the German club ahead after 10 seconds — the fastest goal in Champions League history. Dutch forward Ruud van Nistelrooy converted a penalty in the 82nd minute to set up a pulsating finish, marred by red cards to Bayern’s Mark van Bommel and Real’s Mahamadou Diarra for a skirmish before van Nistelrooy took his penalty kick.
Milan needed overtime to get past Celtic, 1-0, as Brazilian Kaka scored in the 93rd minute after the teams had been goalless for 180 minutes.
Manchester United beat Lille 1-0 at Old Trafford for a 2-0 aggregate win. Swedish on-loan striker Henrik Larsson, playing his last competitive home game for United before returning to his native Helsingborg, headed the winner 18 minutes from the end of a poor game.
The brackets for the Champions League quarterfinals and semifinals will be made Friday.