It was well into the small hours by the time Barcelona boarded their plane at Luton airport but the feeling of frustration still had not passed. For Pep Guardiola's side there was a sense of deja vu, and not just the weary familiarity of another late flight home. For a second successive season Barcelona departed London lamenting the ones that got away, having lost a control that appeared unshakable.
"Just like last year," Dani Alves said, "we leave here with a bittersweet taste in our mouths. We had chances and played well only for the match to slip away from us. But it is not time to sound the alarms. We have to be optimistic that we can go through with the second leg at home."
When David Villa opened the scoring in the first half, Barcelona appeared to be in command. Even Leo Messi's extraordinary miss looked like it might not matter. But Barcelona allowed the game to slip through their hands, with Nicklas Bendtner noting from the sideline where he warmed up that Arsenal's opponents appeared tired.
By contrast, Arsenal grew into the game, with Jack Wilshere in particular increasingly influential. And when Robin van Persie struck a shot past Víctor Valdés, squeezing the ball between the goalkeeper and the near post, Barcelona's lead disappeared. Soon, they were trailing.
Last season Barcelona took a 2-0 lead only for goals in the 69th and 85th minutes to give Arsenal an improbable draw. And although Arsenal's performance on Wednesday was far more impressive than 12 months ago, there was a certain similarity to events at the Emirates. Two goals in six minutes turned the game. Andrey Arshavin made it 2-1 after Van Persie had equalised in the 78th minute. "I didn't think he was going to shoot; he took me by surprise," Valdés admitted. "What we have to do is control the final 15 minutes of the game because last year the same thing happened."
The striker Villa added: "We had the game under control both in terms of the play and the shots, and we should have been more than 1-0 up. But we didn't take our chances. Arsenal are a very good side and they caught us on two counterattacks and did us a lot of damage. They were very intense, we suffered on the break but we actually played very well."
That was a theme to which Villa's team-mates were keen to return. For much of the game Barcelona were at their best and, despite the frustration, those were the minutes to which the players clung. On their terms, at least, they had a point. Whether their terms are flawed is another issue. According to the Spanish newspaper El País, Barcelona completed 773 passes to Arsenal's 423. Xavi attempted 124 passes, completing 116. Seven Barcelona players completed more passes than Arsenal's best passer, Cesc Fábregas.
Alves was refusing to sound the alarm; Xavi described the result as an accident. All of those who left the stadium in bright yellow polo shirts talked of optimism as they approach the second leg. The former Barcelona youth Fábregas appeared to agree, too: he admitted that he was not even sure he would call the 2-1 win a "favourable result", despite it being the "best game I have experienced" and even though it came against what he described as "the best team in history".
The Arsenal captain's midfield counterpart Xavi said: "There are still 90 minutes left. This is a sport and when you let a team off, when you waste your chances, you end up paying for it, all the more so in Europe. But I thought we had a fantastic attitude, we played very well and we were true to our personality.It wasn't to be but there is time to turn it round. Because of their goals, they will feel happier than us but I think we were much [the] better [team]. It was very similar to last year but we leave here with an even worse result. We had the chances to decide the tie."
"During almost the whole game we have played as we know we can but we didn't get the result we wanted. This is the Champions League; we know what it is like. We missed endless chances. It doesn't normally happen to us that we fail to take advantage but this time it has. When you do that, you pay for it."
Xavi dismissed suggestions that Barcelona had struggled physically, as Bendtner claimed. He also insisted that the Catalans remain well placed to go through. "There's no problem physically – I think we're in good shape," he said. "I'd like to think that we are still favourites with the second leg to come at home and in front of our fans.
"This isn't a major slip-up, it's a footballing accident, that's all. I'm optimistic. If you're not optimistic, you might as well give up now."
Source: Sid Lowe, The Guardian on 18 Feb 11
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