Wenger hails Arsenal road show

Arsène Wenger viewed Arsenal FC's 1-1 draw against Bayer 04 Leverkusen as his side's finest away performance in the UEFA Champions League this season.

'Best away game'
Despite being denied victory by Ulf Kirsten's injury-time equaliser, Wenger was still satisfied with the English club's first point of the campaign outside Highbury. "It was the best away game my team has played in the Champions League this season," the Frenchman said.

'Harsh decision'
The Arsenal manager put Kirsten's goal down to a "defensive misunderstanding", but added: "It was a good result as we had so many players out injured." First-choice defenders Tony Adams, Martin Keown and Ashley Cole were all missing through injury and the makeshift Arsenal defence was put under even more pressure by Ray Parlour's 68th-minute sending off. Wenger said: "The second yellow card for Ray Parlour was a harsh decision by the referee."

Turning point
Leverkusen coach Klaus Toppmöller felt the red card was a turning point for his side. "The sending off of Parlour was very good for us," he said. "After that we put Arsenal under pressure and in the last minute we scored a very important goal."

'Fair result'
The scorer of that goal, Kirsten, reckoned a point was a "fair result" given the amount of chances Leverkusen created in the last 15 minutes, but team-mate Michael Ballack felt his side got out of jail, saying: "We were lucky at the end of the game. Arsenal are a top team and we had many problems in midfield. After their goal, we never gave up and we turned it around."

Positions unchanged
Toppmöller felt it was vital for his team not to go into next week's return game in London on the back of a defeat. He added: "Next week we will play as well as we can to win in London." The result, combined with Juventus FC’s 0-0 draw against RC Deportivo La Coruña, leaves the positions in Group D unchanged at the halfway stage with all four teams on four points. Juventus remain top on goal difference.