The Emirates stadium was full of colour and expectations on a brilliant spring evening. Thousands of happy Arsenal fans were waving myriad red and white flags in what looked like a pre-victory celebration.
Almunia's brilliant 'keeping had kept the marauding Reds at bay in the 1st leg semi-final at Old Trafford. Only O'Shea's opportunistic goal separated the two teams. A 1-0 victory at home would give Arsenal a chance to go through to the final of the European Cup (or is it the UEFA Champion's League?) via a penalty shootout.
11 minutes into the 2nd leg semi-final, the collective hopes and aspirations of Gunners fans at the stadium and in front of a live telecast lay tattered in shreds.
Manchester United scored the first goal after 8 minutes on a counter-attack. Gibbs - a far-from-adequate substitute for the exceptionally talented but injured Clichy - had left the slippery Park unmarked. Rushing to foil him inside the box, he slipped and fell. Park quickly bulged the net with a sharp right-footer above an advancing Almunia.
Barely had the fans recovered from the away-goal shock when Van Persie needlessly brought Christiano Ronaldo down. From the resulting free kick, Ronaldo hit a right-footed pile-driver past the wall and a diving Almunia who was beaten by the sheer pace of the shot.
The glazed look on Almunia's face was priceless. Memories of the Foreman-Frazier title fight at Jamaica in 1973 came flooding back. Frazier had a look like that after Foreman knocked him down for the fifth time early in the second round. The fight was called off soon after.
The second half saw Ronaldo score another goal after an exquisite one-two counter attack with Rooney. A late penalty score by Van Persie was little consolation for Arsenal - after an unfortunate red card was shown to Fletcher on what looked like a fair tackle on TV replays.
The Gunners fans badly wanted a trophy. The last one had come 4 years back. The charismatic Arsene Wenger's talent spotting ability had landed several brilliant ball players - Walcott, Nasri, Song, Sagna, Vela, Fabregas. They are young, skilled, enthusiastic and fast. Ideally suited to Wenger's style of crisp one-touch passing, finesse and all-out attack that turns bruising body-contact football into beautiful, flowing, mobile works of art.
There are a couple of problems with this style. Defenders moving up the flank to help the attack often leave large territories uncovered and susceptible to quick counter-attacks. And the talent and vibrancy of youth is difficult to sustain through a grinding season of the English Premier league.
No wonder Arsenal is in 4th place while Manchester United is on top. The 4th place is no guarantee for an automatic entry into the European Cup next year. The rules have been tweaked. Only the top three go through. The 4th placed team will need to play a qualifying round.
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