Manchester United are just one step away from becoming the first club to retain the UEFA Champions League trophy after inflicting a crushing 3-1 defeat on Arsenal to book their passage to the final. Buy Champions League Final Tickets
Arsenal’s hopes effectively vanished inside the opening eleven minutes after first Park Ji-Sung, capitalising on a slip by Kieran Gibbs, and then Cristiano Ronaldo, catching Manuel Almunia out with a free-kick, struck for United. Trailing 3-0 on aggregate there was no way back for the demoralised home side and Ronaldo salted their wounds with the evening’s third goal just after the hour. The only downside for Sir Alex Ferguson’s team was the dismissal of Darren Fletcher, who will now miss the final, for fouling Cesc Fàbregas to concede the penalty from which Robin van Persie struck Arsenal’s futile late reply.
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Manchester United will take a 1-0 lead into the second leg of their UEFA Champions League semi-final with Arsenal. An inspired display from Arsenal goalkeeper Manuel Almunia ensured that John O’Shea’s 17th-minute strike was the only reward Sir Alex Ferguson’s side reaped from a first leg encounter they comfortably controlled.
O’Shea admitted United had not made the most of the chances they created.
“Their keeper made a couple of great saves but from the first half we could have been a couple more up,” the Ireland defender said. “Overall though we have to be happy. We are more than capable of scoring an away goal at the Emirates but it is far from over.”
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It’s another all English Champions League semi-finals and this time it matches the two most successful teams in Premier League history.
Manchester United FC v Arsenal FC
Wednesday 29 April – Old Trafford
Tuesday 5 May – Arsenal Stadium
- Since meeting for the first time on 13 October 1894, the clubs have played 204 times. The Gunners have 77 wins to United’s 82.
- Apart from last season’s final, Manchester United have never met an English club in the UEFA Champions League.
- Arsenal have faced English opposition in Europe on two previous occasions, losing quarter-finals to Chelsea in 2003/04 and Liverpool last season.
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Manchester United v Arsenal Preview – Facts and Figures
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Kick-Off: Wednesday April 29 2009, 20.45 CET, Old Trafford, Manchester.
Going for the quadruple
Premier League rivals Manchester United and Arsenal meet for the first time in European competition on Wednesday night with a place in the Champions League final up for grabs. Man United are looking to be the first team to retain the Champions League, since it changed format in 1992.
United went through a bad patch earlier this month, but they seemed to be back at their attacking best if Saturday’s 5-2 victory over Spurs is any indication.
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Arsenal squeezed into the quarter-finals of the Champions League after a dramatic 7-6 penalty shoot-out win over Roma despite a 1-0 loss at the Stadio Olimpico.
Brazilian defender Juan capitalised on some poor defending to fire the Italians in front and level the tie at 1-1 on aggregate after just 10 minutes. The Gunners grew in stature as the match went on, but could not find a way through as extra-time passed – with Roma’s Max Tonetto missing a crucial sudden-death spot-kick.
Roma had started the better, and it was no surprise when they took the lead.
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Arsene Wenger today confirmed that Arsenal’s Cesc Fabregas will be out for up to four months with knee injury. The Spaniard had to be substituted at half-time in Arsenal’s 1-1 draw against Liverpool on Sunday following a challenge with Xabi Alonso.
The full extent of the damage has now been revealed, with Wenger confirming that he has a partial rupture of the medial knee ligament.
Fabregas had only recently returned to fitness following a problem with the same knee and he will now miss most of the rest of the season.
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With its Premiership title hopes hanging in the balance, Arsenal went to Chelsea’s Stamford Bridge and snatched three crucial points to remain in the title hunt. Dutch forward Robin van Persie scored two second-half goals. The second of which all but knocked the wind out of the Chelsea supporters. His two goals came within a three minute span.
The brace now gives van Persie 7 league goals on the season. Emmanuel Adebayor has 5, summer transfer Samir Nasri has 4, and Samba midfielder Denilson has 2 goals league goals. Is this enough offensive firepower to win the Premiership?
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Arsenal manager Arsene Wengerrealizes that his squad is swimming upstream after early season losses to Hull and Fulham.
That said, he still believes in his players and their ability to mount a Premiership title challenge. He noted prior to this weekend’s match with Everton,
“If you ask me how many games you think we can lose, I would say zero because I always start a season thinking you cannot lose a game, but we have lost two already and we are in a position where we have given ourselves a handicap.”
He continued,
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Arsenal
The loss away to Fulham is a distant memory as Arsenal find themselves top of the Premier League after 5 weeks. The win at Bolton was impressive not only coming after a long mid-week trek to the Ukraine in the Champions League, but also considering that Arsenal had lost 13 of 27 matches in the north-west in the past four seasons.
Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester United grabbing all the headlines, but Arsenal have quietly moved it up a gear since the Fulham loss scoring 10 goals in their last three league games. With no games against the big four until mid-November, Arsenal have an excellent opportunity to put together an impressive winning steak heading into a couple of blog November showdowns.
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A stunning long-range strike from 
