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One participant in the UEFA Champions League final is already clear - it is the London club "Arsenal", after tough and dramatic matches in Spain against the "Villarreal" team, managing to maintain the one-goal advantage obtained in the first match and for the first time in their history reaching the tournament final, where they will face the winner of the duel between "Barcelona" and "Milan".
0 - 0 (First match 0-1, aggregate score 0-1)
88` Juan Roman Riquelme missed a penalty kick
Before the match, Sol Campbell, who had been out of the game for some time, returned to the "Arsenal" lineup, replacing the injured Philippe Senderos, along with Spaniard Jose Reyes. In the "Villarreal" ranks, the disqualified Italian Alessio Tacchinardi was not included. At the start of the match, Arsene Wenger suffered another blow - Matthieu Flamini got injured, so Gael Clichy, who had not played for several months, had to take his place on the field.
"Villarreal" immediately took the initiative and created the first more dangerous attack in the sixth minute, when the ball was kicked out from under the feet of Diego Forlan at the last moment by Kolo Toure. Guillermo Franco was the first to attempt to attack the opponents' goal, but his two shots were very inaccurate.
The hosts of "El Madrigal" pressed the opponents in their half of the field, but during the first half-hour, the London visitors' goalkeeper Jens Lehmann only had to catch a shot by Juano Pablo Sorin once. In the 40th minute, the "Arsenal" goalkeeper had to seriously save his team, when after the pass from the flank, he managed to knock away G. Franco's head shot, and just before the break, J. Lehmann somehow caught Juan Roman Riquelme's penalty shot.
At the beginning of the second half, a man who ran onto the field tried to offer "Barcelona" club jerseys to "Arsenal" forward Thierry Henry. After removing the unexpected visitor from the field, "Villarreal" almost broke ahead - after Javi Venta's pass, G. Franco headed the ball completely off target.
The active Spanish team's forward continued to terrorize the defense of the English club, and when J. Lehmann failed to get the ball, slipping past S. Campbell, he was close to the target with a head shot once again. In the 64th minute, after a melee in the penalty area, G. Franco had a chance to score for his teammate, but Diego Forlan, who was alone against the goalkeeper from about 14 meters away, missed the goal.
Just three minutes later, G. Franco finally sent the ball into the net, but the goal was disallowed for offside. Nevertheless, just before the end of normal time, "Villarreal" had a "golden opportunity" to equalize the aggregate score - Gael Clichy pushed Jose Mari in the penalty area and a penalty kick was awarded to the visitors, but the attempt by the Spanish team's leader J.R. Riquelme was saved by J. Lehmann and saved his team.
At the end of the match, T. Henry failed to seize the opportunity to snatch victory when his shot from the edge of the penalty area was blocked by "Villarreal" goalkeeper Mariano Barbosa, but it did not have any greater significance - "Arsenal" resisted and thanks to Kolo Toure's goal in the first match, they secured a ticket to the Champions League final on May 17 in Paris.
