Arsenal:
                   Lehmann
    Eboue     Toure    Senderos     Flamini
Hleb (Pires 76)    Gilberto       Cesc (Song 90) 
          Ljungberg        Reyes (Diaby 80)
                    Henry 

Ok, sensible mode off. What a game! There can't be an Arsenal fan anywhere who's had many better European nights than this. Not just the win but the manner of it. We were simply a lot better than Real Madrid, in every department.

Some reports have already focussed on the home side being disappointing, and they were. But they were made to be. Sure, they need to look at their performance and learn from it, and we Arsenal fans probably know better than most what that lesson should be. However much they might have said before the game that this was going to be a tough test, the Galacticos thought that they'd be better than us. But we tore them apart in the first few minutes, giving the Arsenal side a confidence boost that lasted through the whole game, and giving the Madrid side a shock from which they never recovered. We've seen it happen to Arsenal.

We played a 5 man midfield, but in such a way that, with Freddie Ljungberg and Jose Reyes both being quick to support Thierry Henry, and with us attacking a lot, it was more like a 4-4-2 with rotating strikers. It also helped to clarify the roles of Cesc and Gilberto, the latter sitting in front of the back four and doing his simple-but-effective thing more effectively than he has all season, while the young Spaniard was free to concentrate on his passing and playmaking further forward (and did so so magnificently that surely he'll be closely watched as a World Cup option now).

With just over a minute gone, they gave the ball away in midfield and Henry brought it forward, spotted Reyes running in space on the left, and slipped the ball through for him. It was a tiny bit strong though, and by the time Jose caught the ball and fired his shot in it was running away from him a bit, and the shot across Casillas' bows was too easy for him to bat away.

A few minutes later Henry again was the provider, slipping the ball into the box for Freddie's run (something we've not seen enough of since Dennis Bergkamp's stopped being a regular. But Freddie's touch round the keeper was a bit too strong, taking him wide and giving Roberto Carlos the chance to make a crucial tackle. In hindsight, Freddie probably wishes he'd tried to pop the ball over the keeper with his first touch, but it wasn't easy.

Then on 10 minutes Reyes swung a beautiful cross over from the left wing and Henry rose unchallenged, level with the far post, making good contact with his head. Again, he probably chose wrongly, trying to sneak it in at the near post rather than placing it across Casillas to the left, and it went wide of the near post.

The first half was more than halfway through before the home side posed their first real threat. Zidane's cross from the left found Beckham coming into the box from the right. Mathieu Flamini had let him get away, but recovered well enough, not enough to get a real challenge in but enough to make his presence felt. Like Henry the former Man Utd star went near post instead of far, and like Henry he placed it wide.

A few minutes later Beckham again came close. A Flamini error let Ronaldo in and he played the ball forward for Beckham to run onto. He got to the ball on the edge of the box but Lehmann had done brilliantly to rush out, close him down, and get a hand on the shot.

Real were coming into the game a bit more, but most of their chances were long-range ones which Lehmann dealt with. He saved one from Robinho then punched out a 30 yard free kick from Carlos. But we still posed a threat and they knew it. Henry got into that position on the left of the box that he loves so much, and opened his body up to side-foot inside the far post, but I think his footing wasn't quite right, and he couldn't get any power into the shot. Casillas fell on the ball with Freddie coming in looking for scraps. Ah, Freddie. Not seen him play like this for ages, wonderful! And right at the end of the half he nearly ran through with the ball only for Casillas to make a vital challenge to prevent a superb solo goal.

So, nil-nil at half time. We'd have taken that (or worse!) before the game started, but the way we'd played the first 45 minutes one couldn't help being a little disappointed. Not for long. 2 minutes after the restart, Cesc got hold of the ball in the centre circle and passed to Henry. His strength took him past a challenge from Ronaldo (who does look overweight, as usual) then his speed and guile took him past Guti and Mejia (on after 8 minutes when Woodgate went off injured), and it was strength again that beat Sergios Ramos.This got him into that position on the left of the box, and this time he made no mistake with the shot across Casillas and inside the far post.

Real responded by bringing Raul on for Robinho, who had been totally dominated by Emmanuel Eboue - a serious contender for man of the match so often did he stop their attacks down his wing - and so often in quite imperious style.

Raul came close with a header, and the home side started to attack more and more. But still it was hardly a back-against-the-wall situation, as Arsenal continued to look dangerous on the break. Alex Hleb was having a good game mostly, but as it went on he started to be the one that kept giving the ball away when we attacked, so the decision to bring Robert Pires made a lot of sense.

It had looked like Pires might have to come on for Reyes when he got injured over by the left touchline. An amusing few moments it was too. Jose went down off the pitch, so there was no call to stop play or put the ball out. So he craftily (ummm, ok, a bit stupidly and obviously perhaps) rolled back onto the pitch. Unfortunately, Freddie had the ball at the time and put it out, so Jose only succeeded in breaking down a potential Arsenal attack. And any time-wasting plans came to nought as the ref added nearly 5 minutes anyway. The home side were incensed, and I think 2 of them got booked in the nonsense that followed (one of them in particular, ran over to push Reyes back off the pitch!). Reyes got shown the yellow card too, quite rightly, and really it was an unsporting and bad thing to do. But it was very very funny.

Reyes came back on and stayed for another 5 minutes before being subbed for Abou Diaby, but it looked more tactical than anything else (touch wood).

Lehmann had to rush out to deny Beckham again, and we did have plenty of defending to do. But the clearest chances towards the end fell to Freddie and Diaby, each of which was saved by Casillas.

If there were any weak links for Arsenal it was Flamini and Senderos. You can't fault Flamini, playing so far out of position, but Real should have got him more and should be rueing their failure to do so, particularly since we expect to have a world class left-back available again for the second leg. Having said all that, Matty did make some exceptional tackles. Senderos wasn't bad, and perhaps the occasional slip on his part was only so noticeable because it contrasted so with the utterly awesome Kolo Toure. Lehmann was superb in goal too, and the front line players all played with passion and speed and skill, and all did more than their part in coming back to help out with defensive duties.

There's a long way to go, in this tie as well as in the season as a whole. Like I said at the start, Blackburn and Fulham are still big and crucial tests. But for a team that's been dropping points largely through lacking confidence, you can't get much better than a performance and a result like this.

Last word goes to my friend Adam...

"We can still play like gods"

(see also second leg report)