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Gunners Run Into Milan Wall

Thu 21 Feb, 12:23 AM


Arsenal were kept at bay as AC Milan's dogged defending earned them a 0-0 draw in their Champions League last-16 first leg tie at The Emirates.

Arsene Wenger's side took the game to the reigning European champions from the off, but despite the best efforts of Cesc Fabregas and company, Milan's defence stuck to their task to leave the tie evenly balanced ahead of the return leg at the San Siro in a fortnight's time.

The Gunners suffered an early blow when Kolo Toure was replaced by Philippe Senderos after the defender suffered a calf injury in blocking Pato's powerful strike.

But Arsenal were soon on the attack when Emmanuel Adebayor raced onto Jens Lehmann's enormous throw out of the area only to be stopped in his tracks by Massimo Oddo's well-timed tackle.

Eduardo slipped as Bacary Sagna sent a dangerous cross across goal, while Senderos just failed to connect with a Fabregas corner.

Fabregas then fed Adebayor, but the in-form Togo star blazed his shot high over the bar.

The Gunners finished the half strongly and created the best opening of the first 45 minutes when Emmanuel Eboue tied Paolo Maldini in knots, before teeing up Mathieu Flamini, but his shot was comfortably saved by Zeljko Kalac.

Arsenal made a bright start to the second period when Fabregas' corner caused confusion in the area and it struck Kaka's chest before bouncing just wide of goal.

Alexander Hleb's fantastic run down the right then carved Milan wide open but Eboue's 20-yard shot missed the target by inches. Eduardo then fired a shot on the stretch just over the bar as the hosts upped the tempo, before Adebayor had the ball in the net - only to see his effort correctly flagged offside after he stabbed past Kalac.

Fabregas then tried his luck from 25 yards after some space opened up in front of him, but his low drive was again too easy for Kalac.

Arsenal brought on Nicklas Bendtner and Theo Walcott late on and the latter almost created a last-gasp winner when his cross on the right picked out Adebayor, but his header struck the crossbar before bouncing to safety.

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