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UEFA Champions League quarter-final matches started on Tuesday evening. London's Arsenal club took a powerful step towards the next stage, defeating Turin's Juventus team at home with a two-goal advantage, while in Lisbon, the local Benfica team, thanks to excellent goalkeeper play, held a peaceful draw against Barcelona.
The theme of the day was the return of Frenchman Patrick Vieira to the "Highbury" stadium in the English capital - the experienced defender spent the best years of his career representing the "Gunners" and this time he had to face his former teammates wearing the Juventus jersey.
The match started evenly and almost throughout the first half, neither team was able to take the initiative. The first real chance came in the 15th minute for Cesc Fabregas, who was led into the penalty area with a precise pass by Robert Pires, but the young Spaniard missed the shot wide.
In the guests' ranks, Zlatan Ibrahimovic was perhaps the most active, but he couldn't break through the opponent's defense, and Arsenal's attacking leader Thierry Henry missed the goal twice from distance. However, in the 40th minute, the hosts broke through - R. Pires took the ball in the middle of the field from P. Vieira, T. Henry passed to C. Fabregas, who sent the ball into the goal with a weak shot past the goalkeeper.
After conceding a goal, Juventus stumbled, and soon T. Henry found himself free near the edge of the penalty area, but his shot missed the far post. Arsenal's attacks continued, and the Turin team was saved by Gianluca Zambrotta, who managed to outsmart the dangerously advancing Alexander Hleb.
After the break, the guests were slightly more active, but Z. Ibrahimovic was disrupted in the penalty area by Kolo Toure. On the other side, a pass from Emmanuel Eboue almost flew into the goal, and later, Juventus' goalkeeper Gianluigi Buffon had to save the shots from T. Henry and C. Fabregas from almost the same penalty spot.
In the end, Arsenal's pressure paid off in the 69th minute, when A. Hleb accurately passed the ball to C. Fabregas who had entered the penalty area, he returned the ball to the open T. Henry, who just had to stop and send it into the empty net.
At the end of the match, the nerves of the Italian team players couldn't hold - in the 87th minute, Mauro Camoranesi received a second yellow card for a harsh foul, and just a few minutes later, the same fate befell Jonathan Zebina. Juventus will not only be missing two players who received red cards for the return leg due to disqualification, but also Patrick Vieira, who exceeded the yellow card limit.
In the second match on Tuesday, in Lisbon, the local Benfica team fought against the Spanish champion Barcelona at home. The visitors from Catalonia had the first good chance to score in the 15th minute - after the goalkeeper Moretto caught the ball with his hands following a pass from a teammate towards the hosts' goal, a free kick was awarded, but the goalkeeper corrected his mistake by defending against Ronaldinho and Henrik Larsson's shots.
Defending champion Benfica counterattacked, but Simao's shot went straight to the goalkeeper, across the field, Andres Iniesta's run ended with an inaccurate shot, and Manuel Fernandes' attempt to score against Barcelona's goal was also unsuccessful.
Subsequent inaccurate shots included a shot by former Porto player Deco after a pass from Ronaldinho and a failed attempt by Mark van Bommel to beat goalkeeper Moretto, who just before the break repelled Samuel Eto'o's close-range shot and almost gifted a goal to M. van Bommel, but the latter missed from a sharp angle.
Despite dominating the match, Barcelona could not score even one goal, and this was best reflected in two episodes in the middle of the second half - initially Moretto managed to deflect H. Larsson's shot towards the post, and soon after a corner, Tiago Motta's header also hit the goal frame.
At the end of the match, Benfica had chances as well, but the confident play of the visitors' goalkeeper Victor Valdes followed the example of the Portuguese team colleague and kept his goal dry. The match ended goalless, so the winner of the tie will be decided in the return leg in Barcelona.
Tuesday's results
2 - 0
40` [1 - 0] Francesc Fabregas
69` [2 - 0] Thierry Henry
87` Mauro German Camoranesi, 89` Jonathan Zebina (both Juventus) sent off
0 - 0
