Wenger relieved as Arsenal hold nerve
Thursday, August 14, 2008
Article summary
Arsène Wenger felt Arsenal FC's "technical superiority" was telling in the 2-0 defeat of an FC Twente side who paid the price for inexperience and profligacy at home.
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Wasted chances
Twente pipped AFC Ajax to a place in the UEFA Champions League via the Dutch play-offs last season and they carried that form into last night's game in Arnhem, hustling their English visitors from the start but failing to take advantage of a number of presentable openings, particularly for Marko Arnautovic and Romano Denneboom. The Gunners were not so profligate in the second half, William Gallas opening the scoring shortly after the hour before Emmanuel Adebayor doubled the advantage with eight minutes to play.
'Technical superiority'
"We were a very young team and we did not lose our nerve, did not panic and in the end maybe our technical superiority allowed us to score two goals," said Wenger. "That is a massive advantage for the second leg but we will be on our toes. In the first half, they had some chances, but in the second half we slowly took over. They had given so much in the first half, they could not keep the same pace and tightness in their marking. From then on, we looked more comfortable."
Inexperience
Twente coach Steve McClaren felt inexperience cost his side in their first showing at this level. The former England manager said: "I think we should have scored in the first half. You don't get many chances and you have to take them. We didn't do that. We lost concentration on two occasions and got punished. That's what happens in Europe against the top teams. The inexperience in the dressing room showed and we have to learn from it. But I can't fault the performance – we had Arsenal rattled, especially in the first half."
