i mean, saka was shooting with his right and nketiah with his left (on the turn) where pelligrino had a clean 1-on-1 vs keeper with time to set his body and feet how he like.
Another close call there! Sambi shows us his two sides and then luckily Turner claims it by a fraction away from the onrushing attacker.
HT BOD 0-1 ARS Nothing much to write home about. Saka's been very lively with much of the offense going through him. And the all important first goal. We REALLY need to consolidate this lead early in 2T because they could've scored a few already.
Not at all impressed with Nelson thus far. Has done absolutely nothing when he's gotten the ball. Sambi has shown some really nice flashes. Still a little work to do but impressive.
Turner's had an OK game. He should be very well accustomed to playing on turf from his Revs days. His footwork continues to look ungainly but so far he's done what he's needed to do. From what I could see.
stronger lineup with more starters than i would have liked to see but understandable from arteta's perspective, i think. they haven't lost at home in 14 and actually beat eventual tournament winner last year twice. and the sooner the group is clinched, the sooner he can actually rest some starters . . . maybe. and even with that strong lineup, we aren't exactly tearing them apart. i know that surface helps but they have genuinely played well (to go with us being poor).
Now Paramount's (or UEFA's?) algorithm will show us zillions of replays of the same few plays. That subtle flick by Holding to save a goal in the first few minutes was I guess more skill than luck it seems
i mean, it's his first extended outing after a long layoff against a solid opposition on a weird surface (that everyone appears to be struggling with) . . . some really good moments, whether it's the 1-2 for the goal or actually turning with the ball in the middle.
you can see from the replay they showed after it happened that he actually checked his foot to angle the touch mid-play. it would have been easy to accidentally do an own goal there.
Lokonga dicks around with the ball too much for my liking... in dangerous locations, with men on him tight.
IDK I can't really recall Nelson having a breakout game. Same for tonight. I'm OK giving him more chance, but I have to say my expectations are quite low.
If Partey does it as much as Lokonga, then he does it SUPREMELY better. If a player can generally pull it off, I'll cut them slack, get used to them doing it, and not worry so much. But Sambi is not good enough to do that yet IMHO. Meanwhile, Pelligrino has his 2nd shot on Turner that he should've scored. Decent save by Matt.
We seem a bit too comfortable tapping it around and keeping possession. I'd like to see more urgency and quickness when we regain the ball.
Add Tierney to the list of players with woefully wayward shots. Then Solbakken has a great shot which went 8" over the bar. Second goal from our boys PLEASE?!!! Soon????
Bodo misses another sitter! They deserve to be up 2-1 in this match. We have lost any semblance of control we had. Xhaka comes on for Saka. Shape change coming? Viera perhaps? Martinelli on for Nelson.
We've let off the gas. We were bad about that last season. Hopefully these changes bring back the intensity.
Thing with Nelson is that he drifts out of games too much - can end up being invisible for entire halves.