Arsenal:
              Lehmann
     Eboue Toure Senderos Flamini
        Gilberto     Cesc
Ljungberg Hleb (Diaby 87) Reyes (Pires 62)
             Henry

The only negative was an absurd booking of Jose Antonio Reyes, for time-wasting when taking a corner about 10 minutes before half time. It's hard to complain too much though, because Emmanuel Eboue was lucky not to be sent off when he threw an elbow, and overall the ref's performance was balanced.

Jens Lehmann was first called into action after 4th minutes when he had to stretch high to catch a looping cross from the left. Not too hard, just enough to get him involved and alert.

In the 9th minute, Eboue got forward on the overlap and won a corner. It was played short on the right then whipped high beyond the far post where Gilberto was in space, he jumped and opened his body to hit a mid-air right foot side-footed volley. It was heading goalwards but he didn't get a lot of power into it, and it was unwittingly blocked by an combination of Senderos and a Juve defender before it reached to 6 yard box.

Arsenal were already back on top by this point, the pattern of the game looking rather like that of the second half of the first leg. Fabio Capello was already gurning ferociously from the bench, like an Italian Les Dawson.

On 14 a throw-in from their left came to Zambrotta a few yards outside our box and he hit it first time, a sweet strike which had Lehmann scrambling towards his right hand post but bounced inches wide.

The choice of Freddie Ljungberg over Robert Pires became clear as things went on. Pavel Nedved was playing on their left wing, and Freddie's all-action style combined better with Eboue's in keeping him quiet over there.

In the 18th minute a loose ball by Gilberto towards Mathieu Flamini was intercepted, and Flamini flicked out a foot as the Juve man went past him. The attack came to nothing, through a combination of a defensive header from Big Phil Senderos and a dodgy offside call, but the ref then rightly booked Flamini.

Up the other end and a delicious turn from Thierry Henry to get away from his marker, as Henry controlled the ball with his first touch in the D with back to goal, was followed by a less-than-powerful shot which went straight at Bouffant in the Juve goal.

On 22, Reyes fouled Zambrotta on the wing. The free kick was cleared but played back in and Ibrahimovic nodded down from the D to Chiellini, the defender still being up there from the free kick, but he tried a first time shot from distance which went way way over the bar. Then they won a corner and Lehmann made a good brave catch under challenge from 2 striped shirts.

Thierry won a corner on the left with a run down the wing. It was cleared, then played back in and again a defender had stayed up. This time it was Senderos who tried a first-time shot, deflected for another corner.

It was at this point that a patch of blood on Freddie's face became apparent.

Up the other end, on 26 minutes now, Lehmann had to pounce on a low cross from deep on their right, with Trezeguet bearing down on him.

Then a throw came into our box and Trezeguet tried an ambitious overhead which he skewed well wide.

Then the ref spotted the blood on Freddie, but it turned out not to be a facial thing but a nasty cut on his finger. No big deal though, ('there's only one...') Gary Lewin just wrapped some gaffer tape round it and threw him back on.

After a 20 to 25 minute spell of Arsenal domination, but little goalmouth incident, Juve started to put some real pressure on. On 30 minutes Eboue went for a high ball with Nedved. Nedved was a bit all over him but was going for (and got) the ball, and after the ball had gone Eboue raised and swung an elbow, in the direction of the Czech's head. He was very very lucky that it wasn't seen.

A minute later they had the ball in the net when a long chip into the box found Nedved very marginally offside. He nodded down to Trezeguet who found the net, but the linesman made the right call. Again, we were a bit lucky.

A long ball forward down the right found Mutu but, with a team-mate making a potentially dangerous run into the box, he only managed to cushion a header back to Lehmann.

Henry got hold of the ball near the left corner with back to goal, but Cannavarro ran into his arm and went down like a sack of gnocchi, winning a soft free kick for the home side.

On 36, we played the ball patiently out of defence then Eboue made a cracking run on the overlap and was found by a perfect ball forward by Alexander Hleb, the kind that makes the full-back accelerate onto it. We had 4 players coming into the box but there were 4 defenders there too, so Eboue chose to bring it in there himself. A bit of numble close-controlled footwork saw him shimmy past one defender, but he ran into the second and it went out for a corner. Over-played a bit perhaps, but a nice effort and good to see such skill and directness. It was this corner that Reyes was booked for time-wasting, a pathetic decision by the ref. When the corner did come over from the right, Gilberto had a free header on the left but a fair way out, and it looped easily for Buffoon at the near post. We were back on top now. Mutu hacked Henry down from behind and the ref wimped out on the card, but soon after he did show one to Chiellini for doing the same to Hleb as the Belarussian escaped his attentions on the right touchline.

Another nice Arsenal move out of defence, from Senderos to Cesc to Reyes and Hleb, ended with a little square ball that almost found Freddie's run into the box.

Hleb's cross-field ball to Reyes on the left found him in loads of space and he cut inside only to fire a weak and easy low shot at Buffon's near post.

Ibrahimovic cracked his head on Eboue's as they went for a high ball together, there was only ever going to be one winner in that meeting of bonces. Nedved had switched to the right for a bit, fed up with coming out third best to Eboue and Freddie time and again.

Flamini led with his arm going for a high ball with Nedved on that side, clattering into the playmaker rather effectively, and might have ended up with a second booking if his eyes hadn't been so clearly on the ball.

Mutu took the free kick and floated it towards the left post, where it flew out only a few inches above Chiellini's unmarked head.

Mutu then flicked a hand at Reyes as they went for a ball together, and Jose went down clutching his head, over-egging it a little I thought. The ref bought it but at least he didn't show a card to the former Chelsea drug-user.

Nedved started the secind half playing more centrally, and almost put Ibrahimovich through straight away only for Eboue to stretch and cut it out. The change helped. They've been missing Del Piero and Nedved's probably the only man they've got that can fill his boots.

3 minutes after the break Henry was put through in the inside right channel. His perfect first touch took him past his marker, but his second was a bit heavy and Buffon came out bravely to make the block. He collided with Henry after clearing the ball, and spent the rest of the game clutching his ribs now and then.

Eboue made a magnificent sweeping tackle on Ibrahimovic. Toure made a great clearance from the box when the throw came over. It was played back in and cleared again, heading towards the goal-line by our left corner flag. Ibrahimovic didn't bother to move, thinking it was going out, but Toure had other ideas and chased the ball to save the corner. Most significantly, the home fans started singing songs against their team, commenting on their lack of effort. A little unfair I thought, but perhaps effective, because Juve's level of effort was raising by the minute. As with the Real games, some will say this was a poor showing over 2 legs from the Italian champions-elect. But we prefer to say, and are confident that we're right, that if they looked poor then both side were only made to look poor by superb Arsenal play.

Capello's touchline gurning was approaching championship quality. Juve were being called offside time and time again, not always rightly.

Freddie got to the by-line with a superb run and cut back towards Henry and Hleb, but Chiellini got a goal-saving touch on it.

Capello brought on another striker in Zalayeta, Mutu coming off for a well-deserved can of Coke.

Just after the hour, Robert Pires came on for Reyes, saving the danger of having the sometimes-hotheaded Spaniard, already the victim of a random booking, sent off in the closing stages when we were already under a bit of pressure.

Lehmann hadn't to make a direct save as such, but it wasn't long before he did.

Trezeguet nearly got onto a lovely clipped cross whipped to the 6 yard yard line from the right wing by Nedved. Hleb beat Chiellini in the D, making space for himself to run forward into, then spotted Cesc's overlap on the right and played him in. Cesc took it forward to the edge of the box but as Buffon approached him, chose the wrong option and blasted straight at the keeper rather than trying to place or chip it.

Ibrahimovic hit a shot from outside the box which took a deflection and bounced up off the turf, but Lehmann was alert to it and able to reach up to grab the ball. On 68, Nedved flicked Pires in the face going for a high ball, actually quite a bad one as his arm was reaching high over his head and could only have been going for ball or eye. Straight after that Nedved was booked for a clumsy barge into Eboue on the touchline, after the ball had gone. And seconds after that Nedved was involved again, forcing Lehmann into another save with a cracking half volley from just outside the box which went straight at the keeper but was still not easy to keep out.

A clever back-heel by Zalayeta into our box found Toure and Eboue in a rare moment of confusion, leaving the ball for each other, but they reacted before the striker who was there and both went for the clearance.

Arsenal were camped in our defensive third and it was looking a bit dodgy. Then on 75 minutes Nedved made a crazy sliding challenge on Eboue, deep in our half where there was no danger to Juve and little to no chance of turning the situation into attack (if he'd got the ball, he'd only have knocked it out for an Arsenal throw), and the ref had no choice but to show a second yellow card and send off their most dangerous player. Capello's jaw churned on.

On 80, Hleb did well to make space to run into on the right, and hit an intelligent shot across the keeper but just beyond the far post. A minute later Freddie showed surprising pace (for a player just back from injury) to break down the left, but skewed a shot high and wide when a square ball might have found Pires' unmarked run down the middle. To be fair to Freddie, he was under a bit of pressure by the time it came to making his decision.

Another run down the left for Freddie a couple of minutes later ended with a corner when again a square ball might have found Bobby. But again Freddie was moving at impressive speed which gave him only milliseconds to make that decision.

With 4 minutes to go wenger brought Abou Diaby on for Hleb, ostensibly a defensive move, but seconds after coming on he was in their box, almost getting onto a flick by Henry.

The last few minutes were played out with neither side believing anything could change the outcome.

Another superb nil-nil. Well done to the travelling Gooners who were heard so clearly in London, and to the team who've done us proud. Roll on Villareal, who come to Highbury for the first leg of the semi on April 19th. Having now beaten Real Madrid and Juventus, am I the only Arsenal fan who's a bit worried that we're such clear favourites for the next tie? Probably ;)

The defensive performance has created a new record of 8 consecutive clean sheets in the Champs League, beating Milan's 7 from last season. And theirs wasn't even a full 7 games as it included a match abandoned with a quarter of an hour left to play (see record-breakers page for details).