London Arsenal entered the match of the fourth round of the group stage in Group H of the Champions League as the leader of the quartet. Already on Wednesday, the Gunners could secure a ticket to the playoffs of the competition, and it would be especially pleasant for Arsene Wenger’s team to do this in front of the stands of their native Emirates. Russian national team striker Andrei Arshavin entered the field from the first minutes of the match, forming a pair of attacking players with Robin van Persie.

Already in the fourth minute, Arshavin brought the Dutchman to the goal of Sergio Romero . Robin's shot turned out just right, and the visiting goalkeeper even seemed to touch the ball, after which it whistled past the far post. However, no corner was awarded. From the first minutes Arsenal showed their advantage.

The beginning of the match was also marked by a free kick awarded at the corner of the AZ penalty area: Sergio Romero took the ball in his hands after a pass from a teammate. The hosts tried to come up with something clever, but they only managed to shoot Van Persie into the wall that tightly covered the near corner.

However, this local failure did not upset the Gunners at all. Arsenal continued to reign supreme.

Sometimes the hosts in full force (except, of course, for Manuel Almunia, who had finally returned to duty) went to the opposing half of the field, controlling the ball for a long time and over and over again creating tension in the opponent’s penalty area. Arshavin showed off his dribbling several times, but there was still no goal. The fans had to wait until the middle of the half for the first goal scored.

And then Arshavin sent William Galas into the breakthrough, he, burying himself in the defender, passed the ball to Cesc Fabregas, who had moved to the left flank, and the Spaniard, beating the guard, shot low into the near corner. No matter how much Sergio Romero cursed later in all the languages he knew, the missed goal was entirely his fault.
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Apparently the scored goal relaxed the hosts somewhat. Subsequently, the players of the Dutch club carried out several good attacks, although it still did not come to the point of real threats to the Almunia goal. And Arsenal exploded when it was needed, at the very end of the half, and AZ got a goal “for the locker room”.

Arshavin received the ball in the center of the field, left the defender and brought Samir Nasri to the goal with an excellent pass. The Frenchman easily beat the goalkeeper with a shot from the penalty area.

Once again Sergio Romero missed the ball into the near corner. During the break, the Argentine probably had to listen to a lot of curses from Ronald Koeman , but his partners had 15 minutes to think about how to preserve the chances of continuing the fight, if not in the Champions League, then at least in the Europa League (Liège Standard was leading at half-time in the match with Olympiacos).

However, Koeman’s words obviously did not reach either the goalkeeper or the field players of AZ. Just seven minutes after the match restarted, Arsenal scored again. And again he did it very beautifully: Arshavin received the ball 25 meters from the visitors’ goal, turned around and cut through the defense of the Dutch club with a smart pass. It was not difficult for Fabregas, who came out to rendezvous with Sergio Romero, to score a double.
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A few minutes later Graziano Pelle could score one goal, but Almunia somehow miraculously managed to parry his shot from nine meters.

The ball ricocheted into the crossbar from the hands of the hosts' Spanish goalkeeper and then bounced into the field. Perhaps this was the Dutch's most realistic chance to score. Koeman began making substitutions, which ultimately led to nothing, but Arsenal, to the delight of numerous fans, carried out another exemplary counterattack.

The Brazilian Eduardo, who came on as a substitute, threw a stunning backheel pass into Arshavin’s breakthrough, and the Russian (what an altruist he is), stopping abruptly, beat his guard and brought him to a rendezvous with goalkeeper Abou Diaby . The Frenchman simply had no right to deprive Andrei of his third assist in the match.

Towards the end of the match, the guests were awarded a prestige goal: substitute Jermaine Lens ran towards the Almunia goal and, after a mistake by the goalkeeper, hit the near corner. However, this could not have any impact on the outcome of the meeting. Arsenal defeated AZ and strengthened their lead in Group H with ten points.

Gazeta.Ru conducted an online broadcast of the Arsenal - AZ match.

In another match of the group, Olympiacos lost away to Standard Liege, which did not allow the Gunners to secure a spot in the playoffs early.

News, match results, positions of teams in groups and players in the list of scorers, as well as much more about the most prestigious club football tournament can be found on the Champions League page.

Arshavin tore up the AZ - Gazeta.Ru