SOCCER/Uefa Champions League round of 16, second leg/Arsenal 0 Real Madrid 0 (Agg: 1-0): Arsenal are the sole English survivors in the Champions League. That will not seem so very splendid an isolation to the Premiership, who have seen Liverpool, Chelsea, Manchester United and Everton all fall out of the competition.
For the victors, though, this is a joyous success, not only for the place in the quarter-finals it brings but also for the confirmation the club has regrouped over the course of a trying season.
Arsenal might even have won here, as they had in Madrid, had not Iker Casillas pulled off a fingertip save from Thierry Henry after 74 minutes. The Real goalkeeper was also to be caught upfield when he advanced for a corner in the 90th minute and substitute Robert Pires almost found the unattended net from inside his half, but Robero Carlos got back to clear.
Arsenal's players were conscious of the danger this could be the last European fixture ever to be played at Highbury. Next season's campaign, assuming Arsenal qualify, will be conducted at Ashburton Grove.
Arsene Wenger had not made too much of his side's 1-0 win at the Bernabeu Stadium. He rightly concluded the main significance of that result was the guarantee Real would be even more committed to attack. So it proved in an open first-half, with Ronaldo showing that a set of scales is not necessarily the best way to take the measure of a striker.
He might have put on even more weight, but that did not stop him from tiptoeing into space at the far post to meet Thomas Gravesen's cross in the third minute. Only Ronaldo's decision-making was at fault as he tried to squeeze his header in at the near post. Jens Lehmann turned the ball behind with ease.
The danger was marked again after 15 minutes as Ronaldo seemed to have broken clear until Gilberto Silva made a perfect tackle from behind to stifle the threat. Real were the side under an obligation to attack, but it is in Arsenal's nature to take the initiative.
There was guile and pace here from Alexander Hleb, Freddie Ljungberg and Jose Antonio Reyes to back up the sole outright striker, Henry. Real did not appear to have given too much thought to stifling Arsenal. After 19 minutes, Henry combined with Hleb before Ljungberg helped the ball on to Cesc Fabregas and the Spaniard's finish was deflected behind. With half-an-hour gone, Hleb fed Henry and, while he was fleetingly halted by Raul Bravo, the Arsenal captain still cut the ball back for Reyes to have a drive that was blocked by Michel Salgado.
Brightly as Real had started they did not have the energy to sustain pressure. While the sort of individual accomplishment that saw David Beckham flight a long pass to Zinedine Zidane was pleasing it was not part of any concerted threat.
There was a desperate and rash tone to Raul's pursuit of a long ball he had scant hope of reaching and Lehmann needed treatment after the striker had lunged at him.
Arsenal came closest to scoring two minutes from the interval. Sergio Ramos could not clear and Henry accepted the invitation to draw more defenders before slipping a pass across to Reyes. From an angle, he lifted his shot against the bar.
Real opened the second half with a spell of good football. There was even a bit of swagger to it. Beckham was quite far out on the left when he took a free-kick in the 52nd minute, but he elected against striking the cross that Lehmann was anticipating. He aimed for the top corner and landed the ball on the roof of the net, with the goalkeeper scrambling unavailingly to make up his ground.
This was not the Real of 2003, for whom Ronaldo scored a hat-trick against Manchester United at Old Trafford that captivated a watching Roman Abramovich and inspired his purchase of Chelsea. Nonetheless, there are flickers of the old mastery. After an hour, Raul fired against the inside of the far post following a Beckham header and tried to convert the rebound with a stylish finish, only for Lehmann, still struggling to recover his position, to turn the ball behind.
Perhaps conscious of the delicate condition of the tie, Arsenal did not relieve the pressure on themselves quite as well as they had done in the first-half. Kolo Toure, however, did advance from his defensive position to set an example in the 68th minute when he met a clearance at the end of the area and fired wide. Arsenal looked heartened as they sought the confidence to see this tie through to the desired conclusion.
ARSENAL: Lehmann, Eboue, Toure, Senderos, Flamini, Hleb (Bergkamp 86), Silva, Fabregas, Reyes (Pires 68), Henry, Ljungberg. Subs not used: Almunia, Diaby, Song Billong, Walcott, Djourou. Booked: Henry.
REAL MADRID: Casillas, Salgado (Robinho 84), Sergio, Bravo, Carlos, Beckham, Guti, Gravesen (Julio Baptista 67), Zidane, Raul (Cassano 73), Ronaldo. Subs not used: Diego, Helguera, Cicinho, Diogo. Booked: Guti, Carlos, Gravesen, Bravo.
Referee: M Lubos (Slovakia).
