Arsenal:
        Lehmann
Eboue Toure Senderos Flamini
  Hleb Cesc Gilberto Pires
Henry Reyes (van Persie 82)

My worries about finding somewhere to watch the game were dispelled within a few hours of arriving in Turkey. We got there at 6am on Saturday, spent a few hours trying to find our apartment and then, still not having slept, set off into the town of Side at about 9 to find somewhere for breakfast. Boy did we get lucky.

We chose Hotel Magik Paris just because there was someone sitting outside already. It turned out to be a Turkish guy called Ash who actually lives in Newcastle with his Geordie wife Diane, and they and Ash's cousin Necip (who runs the hotel/bar) kind of adopted us for the week. I think the way we drank beer all day that first day, after no sleep, playing backgammon and other games with them, trying out belly-dancing with them, and then went off to settle into the apartment and get some kip only to return soon after for more drinking, helped to establish us as people that would be entertaining for the week.

Lovely people, lovely place, and Necip was more than happy to confirm that if I wanted to watch the Arsenal, he'd put it on. We weren't even staying at the hotel, but if when we go back then we definitely will. Wholeheartedly recommended: www.magikparisotel.com/.

Anyways, on the day of the game we got there in time for kick-off, only to discover that we'd accidentally put our watches forward twice on the Sunday, so we were an hour early. Thank heavens, I thought, that it was spring and not winter when we might have put our clocks back twice and been an hour late. Only it turned out that that might have been better, because Star TV was showing the Barca game live followed by the Arsenal game tape-delayed. After waiting three hours (made shorter by the fact that the Barca game was pretty entertaining for a nil-nil, if not quite as much as our ours against Real), the cheeky barman Mustafa was only just prevented from telling us the score just as the coverage was kicking off! I guess he thought I'd be happy to learn that we'd won, and I guess he's not enough of a football fan to understand that the fact that we'd won would only make not telling me the score more important.

Everyone was rooting for the Arsenal, whether for our sake or because they'd wisely chosen to lump their money on the Gunners.

The game itself couldn't have gone a lot better. Taking a two goal advantage back to Italy, with 3 of their players banned, is more than any of us were realistically expecting. Juve started alright, but Arsenal were playing as against Real Madrid: choosing to start more slowly and feel them out, before turning the screw and taking control. By the end, Juve were in bits. As my mate Neil said, we made the Old Lady look like an old lady (no offence to any old ladies reading this).

Again like the Real games, Arsene Wenger opted for a 5 man midfield. With Jose Antonio Reyes returning from injury to join Robert Pires and Alexander Hleb in roaming around the central pairing of Cesc and Gilberto, it was again a very attacking formation, but one which gave defensive strength as well.

Ibramhimovic won a free kick off Kolo Toure after about 10 minutes, and took it himself only to see it clip the end of the wall and save Lehmann the trouble of what could have been an awkward save. Despite Juve's early dominance, this was the most dangerous moment of that spell.

After a quarter of an hour Hleb did well to win a throw in near the right corner flag. He took the throw quickly and Pires chested it down in the box and found Cesc's run with a cute backheel, but the young Spaniard scuffed his shot wide.

Juve were still a threat at this stage, but Ibrahimovic was the main threat and the massive presence of Toure was more than a match for him.

A few minutes later Henry nearly scored with a quick free kick, but curled it a yard or two wide.

Mauro Camoranesi picked up a booking that meant he'd be missing the return leg, and soon after was lucky not to pick up another when he barged into Reyes (confirmed recently as the most fouled player in the competition, and he's probably thr most fouled player in every competition he plays in).

The first goal came 5 minutes before the break. Pires won the ball with a superb tackle on Patrick Vieira, who must have been presuming that Pires doesn't make that kind of tackle. Despite all his critics, Pires at his best does make those tackles, and we're starting to see Pires back to his best now. Anyways, he passed it to Thierry Henry and the skipper saw Cesc making a run past him into the box. When he received the ball Cesc feinted to go right, then hit a low shot to the left, through the legs of Lilian Thuram and inside the post leaving Buffon stranded with weight wrongly placed to move that way.

A minute later, Henry created some space in the box and used it to send a left foot shot just past the far post from a very narrow angle.

Juve started the second half well again, but the Arsenal defence held very firm. But it wasn't long before we took control again. Emmanuel Eboue, coming into his own as our regular right back with his terrific forward runs, had s hot deflected onto the roof of the net. Then Reyes sped forward with the ball down the left, squared for Cesc who might have shot from the edge of the box but chose to pass it on to Henry on the right. He cut inside to get away from his marker and hit a left footed shot with enough power but too close to Buffon who made a good save. Soon after, he made a similar save from Cesc.

Moments later Buffon was forced into action again to save a low shot from Hleb.

Then in the 70th minute it was 2. Hleb passes to Cesc just outside the box and Buffon approached him to restrict his shooting options. But Cesc squared to Henry instead and the finish was straightforward for the best player in the world (we'd just seen Ronaldinho's clever tricks and that in the previous game, but also seen the effect of those tricks easily blunted by Benfica, something that rarely if ever happens to an in-form Henry).

A minute later, Vieira picked up a booking which means he also misses the return fixture next week.

Juventus went totally to bits after the second goal, and it's a wonder that we didn't score more. They could only stop us with strong-arm tactics, and it was no suprise when they ended up with 9 men. The first to go was Camoranesi, who'd looked something of a threat and in fact sent a dangerous cross floating past the far post just moments before his second booking. That was 4 minutes from time, and with a minute to go Jonathan Zebina joined him with his second yellow card.

Of course, one has to remember that an early goal for Juve will make them think perhaps they can overcome the deficit. But they need at least 2, and if they leave space for Arsenal to attack then we must have a good chance of grabbing the away goal that'll leave them needing 4. So, so far it's just a partial eclipse of Juventus, but an Arsenal performance anything like this one will surely turn out their lights.

The next day, the big light in the sky got turned out for 4 minutes. Best holiday, ever!