Ipswich beat Arsenal 1-0 in Carling Cup Semi Final-1st leg
It Ipswich Town's lucky day as the Tractors beat Arsenal 1-0 in the first leg of the Carling Cup semi-final. After being beaten 7-0 by defending Premier League champions, Chelsea on the weekend, Ipswich Town showed great heart and determination to beat the
Gunners at home. Tamas Priskin was the star for the home side as he got the only goal of the game, 12 minutes from the end, at Portman Road.
Arsenal were also given a stern match when they played against Leeds over the weekend in the FA Cup; the match ended in a 1-1 draw. The 2nd match in one week, against a lower league opposition, did not turn out to be a walk in the park for the
Gunners either.
http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Paul-c29347 Jewl, the new Ipswich boss, was looking confident ahead of the game. There was a crowd of almost 30,000 present at the Portman Road Ground, cheering Ipswich on.
Arsenal has not won a trophy in 6 years, and the Carling Cup would be ideal to break end the drought.
The Gunners started the game brightly and captain, Cesc Fabregas went close to scoring when he was laid off by Andrey Arshavin. Edwards, the midfielder from Ipswich who scored an own goal against http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Chelsea-c38786 in FA Cup, nearly repeated his mistake when he diverted
a header back towards his own goal, but Fulop did well to keep it out.
Arsenal had the likes of Fabregas, Arshavin, http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Jack-Wilshere-c17463 in the squad from the start, however, they could still not dominate their opponents and the Gunners were pushed to their limits by a resilient Ipswich team.
Edwards, later on, had a chance to score on the correct side, but was stopped by a good tackle from http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Kieran-Gibbs-c20945.
Ipswich were looking good and continued to create a number of chances. The home team went close to scoring when Wickham beat two men and crossed the ball from the bye-line, but captain, David Norris failed to convert.
Later on, Priskin's overhead spectacular kick ended in the back of the net, but was declared off side. He tried to score from a long range again but Arsenal's keeper denied him.
Things did not change much in the 2nd half as the home team maintained pressure. Mark Kennedy had a good chance in the area but his shot was intercepted by Szczesny.
While Arsenal were still struggling to find some rhythm in the game, utter lack of coordination was on display; as Denilson played a pass to http://www.senore.com/Football-soccer/Laurent-Koscielny-c21742 in their own penalty area, the ball almost ended up with the opposition.
Arshavin went close to finding the net when he got the ball on the edge of the area, but his attempted curled shot missed the top corner by inches.
The match winning goal came after a long ball was played over the top for Priskin, and he did well to get on the end of it. Without wasting any time, he then smashed a low drive past the keeper. The final 12 minutes saw Arsenal pushing hard for the equalizer,
but it never came, and now Aresnal would have to wait 2 weeks for revenge, as Ipswich come to the Emirates for the 2nd leg.
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