FA Cup - Full Time Report: Arsenal vs Leeds United - Arsenal salvage draw due to luck
Arsenal took on Leeds United in a game that was expected to be a walk in the park for the Gunners. The game was the opening fixture of the third round of matches in the FA Cup and was set to be a game to remember.
The line-ups for the match were as follows:
ARSENAL: Szczesny, Eboue, Djourou, Squillaci, Gibbs, Rosicky, Denilson, Song, Arshavin, Bendtner, Chamakh
Subs: Fabianski, Fabregas, Vela, Walcott, Ramsey, Clichy, Miquel
LEEDS: Schmeichel, Connolly, Bruce, O'Brien, Parker, Watt, Howson, Johnson, Gradel, Snodgrass, Becchio
Subs: Higgs, Collins, Paynter, Hughes, Bromby, Somma, McCormack
The match kicked off at the Emirates with Arsenal controlling the pace of the game early on. The home side looked to continue their impressive league form as they created chance after chance.
Arsenal had an early scare in the game as http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Marouane-Chamakh-c24294, the team’s striker went down after a late tackle by Alex Bruce. However Chamakh managed to recover after some time and was fit to continue the game.
Apart from the early scare to Chamakh, Arsenal seemed to have a colossal problem on their hands in the form of Caspar Schmeichel. The keeper seemed to be in top form and Arsenal just couldn’t get the ball past him.
In the second half, a moment of madness led to Leeds picking up the first goal of the game. In the 53rd minute, Denilson went on to bring down Gradel in the Arsenal area, with a rather poor and late challenge.
As a result, the referee had no choice, but to award the visitors with a penalty kick. Snodgrass took the resulting kick and sent it flying into the back of the net, as Leeds lead Arsenal by one goal to nil.
After the match being evenly locked for most of the second half, Arsenal managed to get a helping hand from the referee to get back on the score sheet. http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Theo-Walcott-c34873 sprinted into the Leeds’ area, but was brought down by Parker. Despite the tackle looking
to be a fair one, the referee pointed to the spot.
Cesc Fabregas stepped up on the 90th minute to take the spot kick and went on to slide his shot down the middle to get Arsenal level with Leeds, right in the death of the match. Arsenal went on to spring a number of chances in stoppage time, but
just couldn't seem to get the killer blow. As a result, the game ended with Arsenal and Leeds drawing with a score line of one all.
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