Controversy was the flavour of the night in Lisbon, as Arsenal went down 2-1 to a mediocre Porto side in the Estadio do Dragao. Perhaps fortunate for Arsenal, the match won’t be remembered for the Football but for a series of blunders from both referee Martin Hansen and from Gunners’ goalkeeper Lukasz Fabianski.
Fabianski played a major hand in Porto’s opener as he spilled a Varela cross into his net after placing himself in a rather dubious position. However, the lead and Fabianski’s red face didn’t last long, as Sol Campbell headed the equalizer from a corner which was headed back across goal by Tomas Rosicky. 1-1 after 20 minutes.
It was the second half that brought about the most controversial and bizarre moment of the match. On 50 minutes Lukasz Fabianksi picked up a very unnecessary and perhaps not entirely purposeful back-pass from Sol Campbell, and Porto were awarded an indirect free-kick inside the penalty area. In an attempt to hold up play and allow his defenders to get back and form a wall, Fabianski kept hold of the ball whilst protesting with the Swedish referee. However, Fabianski forgot one of the most fundamental rules of being a goalkeeper; get back on your line as quickly as possible.
The Polish International then obliged to the referee’s demands to throw the ball back, before turning to the linesman some 50 yards away on the touchline to partake in yet more protesting. Whilst his back was turned, Ruben Michael took a quick free kick to his teammate Falcao who duly slotted the ball into an open net. 2-1 Porto.
The referee’s performance has been subject to a lot of criticism since the incident last night, the majority of which has come from the mouth of Arsene Wenger, who isn’t shy to voice his displeasures when he feels his side are hard done by.
"What can you do about the second goal? The back-pass was accidental, whenever do you see the defender kick the ball with his toe? The ball hits Sol, it was not on purpose and it has to be intentional to be a free kick. It is difficult to understand how the referee can interpret that."
For me, if the referee sees that Campbell has hit the ball back at Fabianski with any part of his foot, it has to be a back-pass. Campbell’s reaction (pictured) is perhaps a giveaway, as he goes straight to hold his head in his hands before rising to place his hands on his hips as if to say ‘what have I done?’. It’s a clear back-pass in my opinion and the referee got that bit exactly right. Wenger went on to say:
"I have never seen that and I have been in the game a long time. It is difficult to understand. It is completely inappropriate that he allows that in such a situation. When the referee gives the free-kick he has to allow us a chance to defend it, otherwise it is better to give a goal straight away."
Once again, I believe that Wenger is wrong here. It is completely within Porto’s rights to take a quick free kick, and the referee is 100% entitled to allow them to do just that. I’m sure had the incident been given at the other end, and Arsenal had been disallowed a goal because they’d taken a quick free kick, Mr. Wenger would be equally as angry. It’s clever thinking, and quick-minded play from the two Porto players.
The one area of the incident which hasn’t received any coverage, and comes as a surprise to me, is the referee’s position as Porto take the free kick. Mr. Hansen is stood directly in front of Sol Campbell, blocking his attempt to stop the taking of the free kick. Surely had the referee not been stood blocking Campbell’s way then Campbell would have been able to prevent the goal. He may have been booked for doing that, but Arsenal would not have conceded. Can there be any blame pointed at the referee for that?
Martin Hansen has been involved in his fair share of controversial moments in the last 6 months or so, none more so than Thierry Henry’s infamous handball that knocked Ireland out of the World Cup. But I feel he handled the situation as well as he could have done on this occasion.
Hansen’s performance obviously left Arsene Wenger fuming, but even with a Fabianski own goal and a controversial Falcao goal, Arsenal didn’t deserve to win the match. Their performance was nothing short of woeful, and they were lucky to lose by just the one goal. Fabregas, Diaby, and Nasri were all way short of top form, and constantly gave possession back to the home side with sloppy short-range passes and a willingness to keep hold of the ball for far too long. The Gunners didn’t look at all threatening in the final 3rd of the pitch either, and it was only when Theo Walcott came on that they started to attack Porto. Even then, they didn’t get the ball to the tricky winger often enough.
Sol Campbell looked unfit and nervy at the back and Denilson was an ineffective foil in front of the back four. As for the goalkeeper’s performance, this will be a match that Lukasz Fabianski will want to forget rapidly. Arsene Wenger refused to criticise the Pole, however:
"I do not want to come out individually on Lukasz’s performance, and judge him in front of everybody. You have to accept you lose as a team and win as a team. Any individual performance is not to be analysed publicly."
So after such a poor performance and result for Arsenal, it can only get better at the Emirates in 3 weeks time. The one positive they can take is they have the vital away goal heading into the second leg. They may even have Andrey Arshavin, Alex Song, and Manuel Almunia all fit again, leaving them with a thin silver lining to a thick cloud from Lisbon.
