Juventus 1 - Arsenal 0
Wednesday 20th March 2002
Arsenal crashed out of the Champions' League on Wednesday evening as Marcelo Zalayeta's 76th minute header proved enough to give Juventus victory in their final group game. Thierry Henry wasted the Gunners' best chance as he missed a penalty six minutes into the second half.
In the end, it wouldn't have mattered what Arsenal did, as Bayer Leverkusen won 3-1 away to Deportivo la Coruna, but the manner of their exit was still deeply disappointing.
In a near-empty Stadio delle Alpe against a second-string Juve side, Arsenal never hit top gear, and while they certainly had chances to win it, their performance barely merited the last eight of the Champions' League.
Juve had caused Arsenal few problems until Maresca met a right-wing corner perfectly to send the ball above Lee Dixon on the post and into the top corner.
And that goal came at the cruellest time, just after the news had filtered through from Spain that Depor had scored to reduce Leverkusen's lead to 2-1.
And yet it could have been so different had Henry not spurned a golden opportunity to put Arsenal ahead on 51 minutes.
Henry was brought down by Cristian Zenoni, and, despite having a penalty saved by Deportivo la Coruna keeper Francisco Molina last week, stepped up to take the penalty himself.
His spot-kick though, lacked conviction, and was pushed onto the inside of the post by Juventus' reserve keeper. The ball bounced across the face of goal, but was hacked to safety before any Arsenal player could react to the loose ball.
With Kanu, preferred to Wiltord in the starting line-up, having one of his less involved games, Henry was left to bear the burden of leading the line, and he almost atoned for his penalty miss just before the hour, bursting down the left, and firing just wide from a narrow angle as no support arrived in the middle.
Robert Pires had come closest to breaking the deadlock in the first-half, side-footing just wide on 45 minutes, but, a couple of moments of inspiration from Fredrik Ljungberg aside Arsenal never really looked like breaking through in the opening period.
Even having gone behind, the chances didn't flow. Ljungberg was denied by a magnificent save from Fabian Carini, and things certainly picked up once Sylvain Wiltord had come on for Edu, but still Arsenal could have few complaints.
Juventus: Carini, Zenoni, Birindelli, Iuliano, Paramatti (Pessotto 23), Zambrotta (Amoruso 70), Conte, Maresca, Davids, Guzman (Pericard 61), Zalayeta
Arsenal: Seaman, Lauren (Cole 82), Campbell, Luzhny, Dixon, Pires, Edu (Wiltord 78), Vieira, Ljungberg, Henry, Kanu
Booked: Vieira (Arsenal); Davids (Juventus)
Referee: K Nilsson (Sweden)
