By Myles Palmer
Roma 1 Arsenal o
__________________
Roma were almost on home turf, having been at their favourite training complex in Austria for the past 15 days.
They have trained there pre-season for the past six years and had plenty of fans to cheer them on.
Bergkamp had left for London after the Mallorca game, since he does not fly.
The team in 4-5-1 formation was : Seaman; Lauren, Campbell, Adams, Cole; Wiltord, Pires, Vieira, van Bronckhorst, Ljungberg; Henry.
Roma did nothing for half an hour then hit the post twice after Ljungberg had missed a sitter in the fifth minute, when a glorious pass from Vieira played him in.
Van Bronckhorst made some good tackles.He will be a neat, tidy two-touch player.He took a good free-kick, which is rare for an Arsenal player.
He has small feet, I think, which helps. Bergkamp and Henry are useless at free-kicks because they have big feet.Thats my theory and Im sticking to it
It was nice to see Vieira imperiously brushing Totti aside in the first quarter.
The first half was a real game, or as real as pre-season ever gets, two skilful, energetic, serious sides taking each other on.
Zebina grabbed Henry’s shirt and held it for 25 of the first 45 minutes – it was quite silly!
Sol Campbell looked quite good but was clearly rusty.
Roma are a tight, classy team who might beat Bayern or Man United, but it was interesting to see how many problems Pires gave them as he roamed across and down the field.
Wiltord amazed me by moving sensibly and passing sensibly and linking well with Lauren. But he still wants too many touches.
Lauren was great, so economical.
Ljungberg had a decent shot four feet wide of the far post and while C5 were showing the replay, Montella scored at the other end.
It was impossible to judge, on what we saw,whether Seaman was at fault. He came outside the area for a long ball, Batistuta lobbed him, Adams kicked off the line, and Montella slotted home on the stroke of halftime.
After that Arsenal never really looked like scoring. But they attacked with verve for a while until the second half fizzled out
Jeffers came on and made a good off-the-ball run in the box, which I mention because that is so rare in an Arsenal striker.
Luzhny came on for Campbell at halftime, then, after 69 minutes Grimandi replaced van B. and Jeffers replaced Ljungberg.
Ashley Cole, Arsenal’s best player, had a header well saved after 81. Cole has everything : bite, variety, optimism, skill. Watched by Tord Grip, he was superb.
After 77 minutes Imamoto came on for Lauren, who seemed to have a groin strain
Overall, it was the same old story.The Italians are masters of defending a 1-0 lead.
Roma are quality and anybody good enough to beat them in the Champions League will be good enough to win it.
Fortunately, Middlesbrough are mediocre, so Arsenal are still on course for three points on the 18th.
If they play as they did in the first half they will pulverise Middlesbrough.
1st August 2001.