WTTGT Reporter: Tashan Deniran-Alleyne
BORUSSIA DORTMUND 1-1 ARSENAL
Arsenal came within two minutes of snatching a hard-fought victory in their opening UEFA Champions League group game against the reigning German champions.
With manager Arsene Wenger serving the first of his two game touchline ban, he sent out a team that contained four summer signings. Yossi Benayoun started his first game since joining on loan, while Song and Gervinho also returned.
The opening period started with the first chance of note falling to Gervinho, but he saw the ball nicked away from him at a crucial moment. Almost straight away ,the home team spurned a glorious chance to take the lead when Kevin Grosskreutz was found in space but he blazed over.
Minutes later, Dortmund’s Shinji Kagawa almost capitalised on some poor defending but he could only shoot over the bar, then two minutes later Sagna was on hand to clear of the line as the opening goal seemed to be fast approaching. And it did arrive; against the run of play, five minutes before the break. Robin van Persie opened the scoring after latching onto a perfect pass from Theo Walcott to send the Gunners 1-0 up at half-time.
The second half was started with one way traffic with away side being penned back by the hosts, with the counter-attack seemingly the best option. As the half wore on the visitors seemed content with the 1-0, that result seemed likely in the 80th minute when lady luck seemed to be with Arsenal as they managed to survive a goalmouth scramble.
But their luck did eventually run out as Wojciech Szczesny was beaten by a truly world class strike from Ivan Perisic to level the game and deny the Gunners all three points.
A battling display from Arsenal will please the supporters. The players showed something which was supposedly lacking from the team – FIGHT, though the concession of a late goal will be hard to take, a draw is a good result.
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