Van Persie leaves it late to snatch victory
Van Persie followed his goal against West Ham at the weekend with another in Europe
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Tuesday, 02, Oct 2007 11:31
Arsenal dominated their Champions League tie away to Steaua Bucuresti, but it took until the 76th minute before Robin van Persie impressed their superiority on the scoresheet with the only goal in a 1-0 win.
The Romanian side, who finished runners-up in their domestic league last year, applied some early pressure to Arsenal but could not maintain their promising start as Arsenal created chance after chance in the second half.
Valentin Badea thought he had put Steaua ahead after just six minutes but the linesman's flag voided his header and it was to be as close as the hosts came to beating Manuel Almunia.
Cesc Fabregas spurned a good chance soon after and it appeared Almunia's opposite number Robinson Zapata was far more fortunate to be saved by the referee on 40 minutes.
The Columbian stopper seemed to carry the ball over his own line as he attempted to gather a deflected cross but the matter escaped the officials' attention and he made it to half time with his clean sheet still intact.
Emmanuel Adebayor almost produced an opener after the break but the Togo forward could not get enough of a toe onto Gael Clichy's searching cross.
The breakthrough came through his endeavour however as he cut the ball back from the byline for his Dutch strike partner to bury his shot from six yards out and kill off the game.