SOCCER - CHAMPIONS LEAGUE/Juventus...1 Arsenal...0: Arsenal's latest quest in the Champions League petered out disappointingly here last night when what lingering hopes they cherished were dashed by Bayer Leverkusen's 3-1 victory over a Deportivo team of irregulars in La Coruna, the real damage having been done by the Spanish team's 2-0 win at Highbury the previous week.
Whatever Arsène Wenger's side achieved against Juventus was always going to become redundant in the event of a win for Bayer. So in the end only Arsenal's pride was hurt when, after Thierry Henry had missed his second successive penalty, Marcelo Zalayeta won this match for a weakened Juventus side in the 76th minute with a straightforward far-post header from Enzo Maresca's corner.
Turin is prone to fog and although last night was clear enough, Arsenal must still have felt as though they were playing in a pea-souper. Victory might have seen them eliminated yet defeat could have witnessed their survival, it all depended on the result in La Coruna.
As expected Marcello Lippi, the Juventus coach, used what for him was a dead match as an opportunity to examine his spare parts, most notably Tomas Guzman, a 20-year-old Paraguayan striker. Indeed, with only Arsenal's fans making any noise the atmosphere was, for the home team, more suited to a practice match.
From the outset Wenger's team tried to keep up a high tempo with their passing.Patrick Vieira and Edu linked quickly with Thierry Henry and Nwanko Kanu while Laurent wasted no time pushing forward on the left flank.
Much depended on who held sway in midfield, Vieira or Edgar Davids. The two were seldom far apart, whoever was in possession, and when either did move forward with the ball a variety of attacking possibilities presented themselves.
Just past the quarter-hour, for example, Vieira reached the left-hand corner of the Juventus penalty area before squaring the ball to Henry, whose shot was firm but straight at Fabian Carini. Just before the half-hour, however, Vieira fouled Davids to get the yellow card which would have ended his interest in the opening leg of the quarter-finals, whatever happened.
Arsenal's was a stronger momentum born out of stronger motivation. A goal might have arrived midway through the half had Henry, having outpaced Alessandro Birindelli as he received Fredrik Ljungberg's through pass, achieved better direction with his shot.
A few minutes later, with the Arsenal defence caught square, Guzman gathered a return pass from Zalayeta and with the goal agape missed the target. This moment, plus news of Leverkusen leading in La Coruna, did nothing for Arsenal's nerves.
Yet they should have taken the lead as the first half ended. Henry made a sharp interception near the penalty arc and then sent in Robert Pires from the left.
Carini was quick to make a narrow angle even narrower but on his recent form Pires might have expected to score instead of shooting the wrong side of the far post.
Half-time warnings over the Tannoy about the dire consequences for anyone invading the pitch appeared a mite unnecessary. Certainly Arsenal's fans were hardly in an invading mood once Henry, who had missed a penalty against Deportivo a week earlier, did so again five minutes into the second half.
Zenoni was adjudged to have brought the Arsenal striker down - inadvertently perhaps, but there was contact - and again a goal beckoned. Henry's kick was true and struck hard to Carini's right but the goalkeeper, at full stretch, still managed to keep it out.
Almost immediately Arsenal's misery was compounded by further bad tidings from La Coruna as Leverkusen increased their lead.
Arsenal were paying for a failure to take their chances in the defeat by Deportivo at Highbury. This game turned out to be nothing more than a postscript to the real reason for their elimination. Something along the lines of: "Must try to do better at home, when it matters most."
JUVENTUS: Carini, Zenoni, Birindelli, Iuliano, Paramatti (Pessotto 24), Zambrotta (Amoruso 70), Conte, Maresca, Davids, Guzman (Pericard 61), Zalayeta. Subs Not Used: Rampulla, Ferrara, Scardina, Maietta. Booked: Davids, Pessotto. Goals: Zalayeta 76.
ARSENAL: Seaman, Lauren (Cole 82), Campbell, Luzhny, Dixon, Pires, Edu (Wiltord 79), Vieira, Ljungberg, Henry, Kanu. Subs Not Used: Wright, Grimandi, Inamoto, Tavlaridis, Aliadiere. Booked: Vieira.
Referee: K Nilsson (Sweden).
