Lehmann sent off in Euro Final...

The ref was awful he booked Henry for a great tackle and Andy Gray did not shut up all match on how bad he was. Also he should of played advantage and let barca score then at least we would of had a match on our hands im sure both Arsenal and Barca would of preferred that.

henry summed it up best his post match interview was great... i can't remember exactly what he said but it was along the lines of

They kicked me all over but i did not go down because im not a woman.

That man is a genius.

All I can say as an Arsenal fan is Lehmann sending off was fair enough, no arguments there, but other than that the ref was AWFUL, alot of very questionable decisions

11 vs 11 I think we'd have won it, the first 20 minutes before the sending off we had the upperhand, but 12 vs 10 there wasn't much chance

Ronaldinho didn't have a great game, Eto'o was immense tho, Barcelona have also played great football in the CL so I don't feel too aggreaved at losing to them

Gotta question Arsene's sub of Fabregas for Flamini too, Yes he was tiring but it caused a change in our play and we then conceded, once we conceded it was game over as heads started to drop

We'll be back tho

The referee did get pretty much every decision wrong. Arsenal wouldn't even have scored if it wasn't for the ref, and he spoilt a good game by not using his common sense and blowing his whistle as the ball dropped to the Barca players feet after Mad Jens' foul on Eto'o, after which he had no choice but to send the keeper off. I think everyone would've like to have seen the goal stand, Arsenal, Barca and all the spectators. Just another case of referees getting over-excited.

I'm not surprised Henry was having a go at the ref, anything to divert attention away from him not scoring the best chance of the night inside 5 minutes. I would even have put money on Peter Crouch to stick that one away.

Have to agree with you Ian.

Arsenal had some great performamces though, Hleb and Toure were fantastic. Ashley cole wasn't bad, and good old Sol is getting his form back.

However, I know Henry is a "great" footballer, but I can't help feeling that heart wasn't really there tonight. A man of his ability should have put the 1 on 1 chance away. I know I shouldn't blame him, but so many people say that he's never there for the big games and he could have made a difference tonight, but didn't.

There was no way that we were going to hold out for that amount of time against 11 men and with a pretty poor ref. (Even the commentators said he had a bad game...)

We'll be back next year.

I'm not a fan of either so I wasn't fussed either way.

But hats off to the Spanish Keeper ( Arsenal ) who did well where so many would have cracked.

Good game for the first 20mins.

I really do not understand so much of what is being written here.

Did the refereee make any mistakes? Yes he did but those were made in the middle of a frenetic game with the benefit of one snap shot view of the incident. Unlike all of us who had the chance to see numerous replays of every decision made.

Here In Spain comment and replay was always made when they felt a decision was incorrect,( commenting when a decision was made unfairly against Arsenal in equal parts as to any deemed unfair against Barca) they did though not waffle on and continue to use the refereee as the key factor in the match.

In honesty how many of you not only thought Lehman's sending off justified, but that a penalty must ensue also? On first glance I definitely thought it was a penalty and am still not 100% convinced that it wasn't. Many would have given it and if it had been possibly then,(after many replays) you could have had a good moan about the ref.

Both of Barca's goals came from open play and were a result of Arsenal's sterling effort to defend their lead, but the odds were stacked against them. Both goals had deft assists from Henrik Larson who many in England felt only good enough to shine in the Scottish Premier League! :P

The referee made no decision incorrectly that swayed the balance of the match and I think to go on and on about the official takes a whole lot away from the game as an excellent spectacle and the inspirational performance by Arsenal.

Gutting....

Ref I feel was awful. Lehman should have been yellow carded, the goal allowed and let play on. Its a champions league final not a sunday league game....

But, on the other side, arsenal shouldn't have got that free kick either...

Goalie should have saved both goals IMO... Maybe a 2nd keeper, but its a top team and he lost arsenal the chance.

But, at the end of the day, as Henry said, theres nothing that can be done, they have lost, Barca have won. WEll done Barca, we'll see you next year in the final

Question is now, does Henry stay or go??????

I though he's stay if we won, and go if we lost, BUT, after seeing his reaction last night (Henry is usuall so placid, so you know he's really angry), he may just stay and lead us to victory next year.

Ahh well. Poop

Henry (not Peter, the other one) had a good game until he threw the towel and started wandering around.

About the referee... double standards sometimes, it took him a while until he showed Barça's first yellow card while booking Arsenal's players all the time, but IMHO most of the Arsenal's bookings were fair, they were really playing it rough sometimes.

That free-kick against Barça shouldn't have existed, the guy just threw himself on the ground when he saw he might get away with it... which he did.

Now for Lehmann's red card... I'll sit on the fence, it was clearly something he couldn't have got away it, but at the same time... oh well.

Anyway, thumbs up to Arsenal for keeping the 0-0 and even scoring first while on 10 players.

Originally Posted by Peter Henry

In honesty how many of you not only thought Lehman's sending off justified, but that a penalty must ensue also?

Peter, even you know that you can only give a penalty for a fowl in the box, not "close" to it. Sending him off is the only thing the ref could do, he managed to get that one right..... He couldn't award the goal as he'd already blown for the fowl and as we know, Lehmans actions were blatently trying to stop a goal scoring opportunity.

However, booking Henry for a perfectly legal tackle, NOT booking the Barca players who seemed to go down like they'd been hit by a sniper, not booking Barac players for their dodgy tackles. The consistant "waving" of cards by the Barca players is so annoying, that's as much as cheating as commiting a fowl in the first place..... I'm not saying that Arsenal's yellow cards were unjustified (except the one to Henry) but he had 2 standards, that's all.

Arsenal put up a great fight and it wasn't a bad game to watch. I have to take back what I said last night about Henry, he was physically drained after running around that huge pitch....

.

Jelster..My point was that the referee depending on where he was when the incident with Lehman occured could have made the mistake of giving a penalty. it was damned close to the box.

I agree Henry was forced to plough the thankless furrow of the lone striker and he worked damned hard at it. I though he played particularly well and played in very good spirit.

If only he had lifted that ball a foot or so when in that one on one with Valdes!

But see...it's so easy from your arm chair isn't it?