Arsenal breeze into last four

Wednesday, 05, Apr 2006 10:05

Arsenal are into the last four of the Champions League after they held Juventus to a 0-0 draw in the Stadio delle Alpi.

Leading 2-0 on aggregate from the first leg, the Gunners were once again impressive as they completed a Champions League record of eight games without conceding a goal.

The Gunners were buoyed before kick-off by the news that Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Eboue would both start and the visitors began brightly.

Gilberto could have given Arsenal the lead inside the opening few minutes but the Brazilian fluffed a volley from Fabregas' corner.

However, Gianluca Zambrotta gave Arsenal a warning on 14 minutes when he smashed a volley just wide of the post.

Despite this, Juventus failed to trouble the Arsenal goal for the remainder of the half, with Jose Antonio Reyes' yellow card for time-wasting, ruling him out of the first leg of the semi-finals, the only negative for Arsene Wenger.

Mathieu Flamini was also lucky to avoid a second yellow card on the stroke of half-time as he led with his arm into a challenge with Pavel Nedved.

The start of the second-half almost brought Arsenal an away goal when Thierry Henry used his pace to fly past the Juventus defence and it took a brave shot from Gianluca Buffon to stop him.

Juventus' best chance came after 65 minutes when Nedved's cross found David Trezeguet on the edge of the six-yard box but the French striker failed to connect and the chance went begging.

Nedved had a good shot saved by Jens Lehmann before the Czech international picked up a second booking with 13 minutes to go for a late tackle on Eboue.

This signalled the end for the Italians and it was Arsenal who were the more dangerous in the last ten minutes.

Freddie Ljungberg and Alexander Hleb both went close for the Gunners on the break but it didn't matter as Arsenal cruised into the last four.