Wenger under fire over Euro show
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Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger found himself attacked from all sides yesterday after his selection decisions backfired to leave his team facing an embarrassing group-stage exit in the Champions League.
Wenger elected to pick David Ospina instead of first-choice goalkeeper Petr Cech at home to Olympiakos on Tuesday, but the Colombian committed a first-half howler, palming a corner into his own net, as Arsenal lost 3-2 to register a second consecutive Group F defeat.
“OOPSPINA” was the headline in British newspaper the Daily Mirror, while the Daily Express said the former Nice goalkeeper had committed a “calamity” and The Sun said Wenger’s men had been “humiliated.”
Wenger claimed afterwards that Cech had been left on the bench due to a “slight (fitness) alert” prior to Saturday’s 5-2 win at Leicester City, but Arsenal great Ian Wright said the Frenchman had made a “big mistake.”
“For somebody who’s not playing often — and this is a must-win game — how can you put Ospina in goal? You’ve got to question the manager there,” Wright, Arsenal’s second-highest all-time goal-scorer, said.
“I think that’s a big mistake. Why not start with Petr Cech, simply because of the experience he’s got? Because we have to win this game. Arsenal have to win this game.”
Cech, an 11 million pound (US$16.7 million) signing from Chelsea, was Wenger’s only close-season recruit and the calamitous cost of rotation in the Champions League has revealed serious shortcomings in Arsenal’s squad.
Wenger made six changes for the group opener, a 1-2 defeat at unheralded Dinamo Zagreb, and five for Tuesday’s game, which saw Olympiakos prevail on English soil for the first time after 12 consecutive defeats.
Arsenal’s next group fixtures are a double-header against Pep Guardiola’s formidable Bayern Munich, in-form Robert Lewandowski and all, who eliminated Arsenal in the last 16 in both 2013 and 2014.
Pressed on why he had decided he could do without the experience of Cech, an increasingly tetchy Wenger refused to accept he had blundered.
“I don’t give you why. I don’t have to sit here and give you explanations about every decision I make,” he said.
Jose Mourinho’s season took another turn for the worse on the same night. With Chelsea floundering in 14th in the English Premier League, a win at Porto on Tuesday would have been a much-needed boost, but instead Mourinho watched a 1-2 defeat at the hands of the club he led to the Champions League title in 2004. Mourinho said his team paid the price for “two ridiculous mistakes” in defense as Yacine Brahimi and Maicon’s goals powered the Portuguese team to victory.
However, Barcelona pulled off a dramatic escape to avoid defeat against Bayer Leverkusen, scoring in the 80th and 82nd minutes to turn defeat into a 2-1 home victory. Another surprise was in store in Belarus, where BATE Borisov upset Roma 3-2.
In Munich, Dinamo Zagreb was beaten 5-0 in a one-sided game. Bayern was up by four goals after 28 minutes in a comfortable win that saw a hat- trick for Lewandowski and goals for Douglas Costa and Mario Gotze.
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