Arsenal take control of Old Lady

Tuesday, 28, Mar 2006 11:45

Arsenal have taken a massive step towards the semi-finals of the Champions League after they stormed to a 2-0 win over Juventus at Highbury.

Former Arsenal captain Patrick Vieira had a terrible night on his return to north London and picked up a booking which ruled him out of the second leg next week.

Juventus ended the night with nine men after Mauro Camoranesi and Jonathan Zebina were both sent off for their second bookings as Juventus lost their heads in the closing minutes.

The night had been built up around the return of Vieira but his new team failed to get going early in the first-half as neither side produced much in the way of scoring chances.

The Frenchman was welcomed back early on as Spanish youngster Cesc Fabregas, who has shown such promise since his departure, picked up a yellow for a late tackle.

However, Vieira was to suffer further pain five minutes before the break as Robert Pires disposed the midfielder and broke quickly, feeding the ball into the path of Thierry Henry.

The new Arsenal captain slipped a clever ball into Fabregas and the 18-year-old rolled a reverse-shot into the bottom corner of the net.

Juventus were rocking and Henry almost doubled the advantage straight after as he ran at the defence and drilled his shot across the goal and just wide of the post.

Arsenal enhanced their dominance on the game into the second-half and Gianluigi Buffon made good saves from Henry and Fabregas before Arsenal scored again on 69 minutes.

Both players were instrumental in the build-up as Arsenal took a quick free-kick in the centre-circle into Fabregas, who advanced up the pitch and into the penalty area, fed Henry and the Frenchman calmly collected the ball from slightly behind him to finish from 12 yards.

Arsenal were in complete control and Camoranesi and Zebina were sent off in the last four minutes for petulant kicks on Robin van Persie and Henry respectively.