Back From the Dead

Dynamo Kiev 1 Bangoura
Arsenal 1 Gallas

Arsene Wenger expected a point from the trip to Kiev and a single point was what Arsenal got. The first half suggested that the trip back to London would be a jovial one as Arsenal stamped their authority all over their Ukrainian opponents.

Robin Van Persie came close but the biggest miss of the night surely had to be attributed to Manu Adebayor who shot high and wide with only the goalkeeper to beat after a mistake by the home defence.

Had Arsenal be more clinical in their finishing it would have been a different story altogether and continue Dynamo's run of defeats in the Champions League. Last season the Kiev side finished bottom of their group without a single point.

Perhaps the capital of Ukraine held a curse on Arsenal as the Gunners never get the right result there. But a point is definitely better than none though for a long time after going behind, Arsenal did not look like scoring at all.

Of course the penalty decision was very harsh and I thought the Dynamo player induced the penalty by pulling Bacary Sagna to fall with him. However it would not have come to that if William Gallas had not misjudged the flight of the ball which led to the break by Dynamo.

I was mouthing all kind of bad words to both Gallas and Adebayor when the two of them played quite a significant role in bringing the score to par. First the Togolese found the unmarked Theo Walcott wide on the right. Good for him.

Then Gallas popped up at the end of Walcott's low hard ball across the Dynamo's goalmouth to divert it into the net though there was a hint of offside (I think...) when he connected with the ball.

We continued to push forward but a point from Kiev could be regarded as a success considering previous heartbreaks that we suffered there.

Now, the Reebok awaits and hopefully we could snatch another three points there like we did last season.

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