Good football by Porto, terrible play by Arsenal, Cock up by referee...... Debate

First two points correct, third wrong. Referees should allow that sort of thing more often, a free kick is supposed to be an advantage, the defense shouldn't just be allowed to organize themselves first.

Match highlights are on you tube well taken goal weve missed him but thats history

I think you miss the point, The ref was stood between Campbell and the ball, he may not have got a block in anyway but the ref was in the way of any attempt.

I'm all for quick free kicks and allowing play to restart as quick as possible but not on this occasion. As much as i don't like Arsenal, It should have been retaken IMHO.

The referee is part of the field, he has as much right to stand there as Campbell and if you watch Campbell he was so slow in getting himself in a decent position for the wall that he only has himself to blame.

Retaken? Not a chance.

fook all wrong with the goal. If the team with the free kick want to take it quick then its up to them. As long as the ball was stationary and took from the right spot then there should be no issues.

Like Campbell said, what's he meant to do? Push the ref out of the way and get himself sent off?
It sounded like an excuse at the time but watching it back i think he has a point.
The kick wasn't taken where the ball was picked up anyway, the ref was stood there.

Like i say, I'm all for quick free kicks, just not when there is an unfair advantage.

If the roles had been reversed, Wenger would have backed the ref to the hilt. His side have prospered in the past with quickly taken free-kicks - what goes around comes around.

He's done his usual trick of blaming everyone else, the media turn their attention to that and the players who cocked up escape some of the pressure.

It's clever management, but bloody annoying.

Gotta disagree again TFT.

What was Campbell meant to do? Get himself back into his defensive position ASAP instead of bumping him gums, putting his head in his hands and then looking to the skies for help. He takes an absolute age to get moving...Why should Porto wait for him to get in a good position? If it happened on the half way line they wouldn't have done so what's the difference here?

I don't think there was an unfair advantage, Arsenal had enough opportunity to get themselves in the way of the ball, instead they decided to give the ball to the forward whilst the defence fcked around. No-one else to blame but themselves.

agree with mr Tax. You can clearly see Vermaelen waving to people higher up the pitch to come back instead of getting himself back into a defensive position. If he had got himself back the goal wouldnt have been scored.

What next? A keeper asking the ref to disallow a goal as he wasnt fully prepared to save it?

Ok, ok, points taken.

I just watched it back and see where you're coming from, the defenders did take an age to react but in the situation of a quick free kick in the box, i still think the ref should get himself out of the way before letting play restart.

Still disagree. The ref was stood on the spot where the free kick was taken from, Arsenal players had plenty of opportunity to get round him but decided to stand around with their fingers in their arses.

The one thing they can be peeved about was the penalty decision up the other end.

Arsene Wenger is a card

'The ball hit Sol'



The ball was running away from Campbell and he tried to guard it back to his keeper. But yep, it's the balls fault that the overweight, over-rated has been kicked it back to the keeper.

'if you allow the team to play quickly, just five metres from the goal, how can you defend that'

Generally the best thing to do is get your players inbetween the free kick and the goal. This normally helps.

Very true, didn't a certain Thierry Henri do exactly the same once in a league game??

He took a quick free kick against Villa that went straight in but it was slightly different to last nights in that it was from 30 yards out so quite hard to draw direct comparisons.

For once wouldn't it be nice for a manager just to blame his own team and not the fooking referee?

Ah but Arsene Wenger has what you could describe as selective sight.

Eduardo? What dive?