Arsenal:
                Almunia
       Hoyte Toure Djourou Eboue
Hleb (Gilberto 70) Cesc Flamini Ljungberg (c)
 van Persie (Walcott 80) Adebayor (Henry 65)

They were pressing us hard right from the kick-off, and we survived a couple of half scares scrambled clear first by Emmanuel Eboue and then a combination of Johan Djourou and Kolo Toure. We'd been penned right back for 7 minutes till at last we attacked only for it to break down and we were threatened by a long ball forward which Manuel Almunia had to come out of his box to head clear.

We did have one promising attack in this first period when Alexander Hleb played a cute reverse pass to the right wing which Eboue picked up and hit a quick cross into the box which a defender managed to deflect away from Emmanuel Adebayor in the box.

I'd just been thinking that part of the problem was Eboue hanging back too much, when on 12 minutes he got caught forward when Dinamo broke down his wing. They only had 2 players coming forward though, with 4 or 5 Arsenal defenders in our half, but still they managed to play a nice combination to put Eduardo clear just inside the corner of our box, and his low shot beat Almunia (a little too easily I thought) to go inside the far post for 1-0.

Despite my gloomy preview though, Arsenal responded well and rather than looking nervous we started to push forward more and ended up dominating the rest of the game. The 2 goals came late but we could have scored a few more before that.

Up front Robin van Persie was a constant threat, while Adebayor put himself about to little effect. Captain for the day Freddie Ljungberg was a more dangerous striker than the Togalese star whose ball control is starting to make the Kanu comparisons look less and less justified.

Van Persie's good turn and run won a free kick (and a yellow card) which he hit low into the wall. He took the resulting corner himself and it was punched clear but came back to Robin who carried it back into the box, got to the goal-line and won another corner. This one was headed clear but it was good to see them both getting into the danger area (even if we didn't have anyone attacking the ball when it got there).

Adebayor knocked a long ball back for van Persie but was penalised for his challenge on the defender as he did so. Then, about halfway through the first half, another ball into their box was headed across the area by Toure where it found van Persie, whose snap shot on the half volley hit a defender's outstretched leg and went up onto the underside of the bar only for the spin on the ball to take it the wrong way when it bounced down onto the goal-line. A couple of minutes later van Persie again got to the goal line on the right, a couple of crafty turns, back then forward again, made him space for a narrow angled shot which forced a near post save.

Soon after van Persie took a free kick from 10 yards in from the right touchline which found Adebayor's head, but he never got off the ground resulting in him being too far under it, and the header looped over the top corner of the goal frame.

On the half hour, another nice ball into the box was cushioned to Freddie by Adebayor, and the skipper's low shot forced a good save before the ball was eventually scrambled clear.

Then we had a dodgy moment when Justin Hoyte was beaten on the edge of the box on the left. The Dinamo man turned back infield and might have been fouled in the box as he passed it back, there was a cross/shot from just outside the box which nearly found a striker coming in at the far post, but he was given offside anyway.

Hleb slipped a gfreat ball into the box for Adebayor who tried to turn with the ball but let it get away from him and it was cleared for a corner. In the dying seconds of the half Dinamo had another rare break and again (and from the same area of the box as the goal) they got a shot away despite being outnumbered. This one went short of the near post and the ref (wrongly I thought, from my position directly in line with it) gave them a corner.

A couple of minutes after the break Adebayor got a slight tug trying to get onto a through ball into the box, slight enough that he probably shouldn't have let it affect him. Then Eboue was put clear down the wing and his cross back from deep came through to Freddie whose first-time shot flew over the bar.

Adebayor missed a golden chance 8 minutes into the second half when a low diagonal ball into the box from the left was turned on by Hleb then deflected to Adebayor 10 yards out and completely unmarked, he smashed it over the bar.

Van Persie and Ljungberg still looked the biggest threats to the Dinamo goal. The Dutchman got the ball in the D and chose to wait instead of taking a half chance at a shot, then tried to thread the ball through for Freddie's run but the precision required, with 2 defenders shepherding the Swede, was too much. Then van Persie got the ball wide left and his cross appeared to be blocked by a hand, but in truth we had no-one there to get on the end of it and didn't deserve anything from the move.

Freddie started playing more centrally, and generally we weren't using the width of the pitch well. But Hoyte did have a good run, bringing the ball in from the wing only to have his shot blocked just outside the box. Nice to see him getting forward though because on the whole we weren't doubling up with overlapping runs on the wings like we should have.

Adebayor hit a cross too strong from left to right across the box but van Persie stretched to take the ball down brilliantly, but he hit his cross/shot back across the box much too strongly. A few minutes later he hit a cross from the other side, across the 6 yard line with no-one attacking it.

With 25 minutes to go, Thierry Henry came on for Adebayor, and made a big difference with the defenders clearly and rightly terrified of him. Flamini won a free kick to the left of the box which Henry floated to the far post. Djourou's run was blocked so he couldn't get goalside of his marker, but he did well to retrieve the loose ball beyond that post and slip it back to van Persie beyond the D. He passed it across to Henry who poked the ball into the box only to be penalised trying to run round a defender when his only crime seemed to have been being a bit quicker.

In a rare moment up our end a defensive mix-up nearly let a striker in but Djourou saved the day by bringing him down and getting yellow carded (when it could possibly have been worse). The free kick was curled wide.

Gilberto, who we had missed badly, came on for Hleb with 20 minutes to go, Cesc moving to the right. Henty won a free kick but hit it well over the bar. Then with 13 minutes to go Eboue won a free kick right on the right touchline. Van Persie tried to steal about 15 yards infield but the ref spotted it and made him go back a few yards. Still, he was a long way infield from where the foul had occured when he took the free kick, and good thing too because he clipped it into the box to find Freddie and a glancing header beat the keeper for 1-1 on the night and game over on aggregate.

The home crowd started signing 'you're not singing anymore' which I have to say I find really irritating at times like this, given that the away fans were superb and didn't in fact stop singing (clapping, banging their drums, etc) at any point during the game.

Soon after, another decent ball from van Persie's corner found Flamini's head but he couldn't keep it down. And with 10 minutes to go Theo Walcott came on to a huge cheer and once again made a big difference. His speed is obvious, and so is his desire (if he can maintain these things when he's getting a whole game then perhaps he can live up to the hype). Straight away he played a nice 1-2 with Henry, was given offside, hit a half-hearted shot anyway, and was booked.

Dinamo managed a couple of shots from distance in the last 10 minutes but they went well over, and wide. Walcott continued to cause problems, and in injury time created the winning goal after Henry had done really well, as he slipped in the box, to poke the ball out to the youngster on the right. He hit a low cross which just evaded a defender to find Flamini lurking on the 6 yard line. Matty controlled it well and made no mistake with the point blank chance. But really, the game was over as soon as they'd scored the first goal, thanks to Arsenal's spirited if not entirely effective reaction.