Arsenal striker helps secure thrilling win with late match winner at liege
Arsenal striker helps secure thrilling win with late match winner at liege
Arsenal striker Eduardo celebrated his Champions League reprieve with the late goal that gave the Gunners a dramatic 3-2 victory over Standard Liege last night.
Arsene Wenger's side looked set for a miserable start to their Group H campaign when Belgian champions Liege opened up a two-goal lead in the first five minutes at the Stade Maurice Dufrasne thanks to Eliaquim Mangala's strike and a Milan Jovanovic penalty.
But Nicklas Bendtner pulled one back before half-time and Thomas Vermaelen equalised before Eduardo poached the winner nine minutes from full-time.
Eduardo's decisive intervention capped a remarkable 24 hours for the Brazil-born Croatian, who had learned on Monday that he was free to play after UEFA overturned his two-match suspension for allegedly deceiving the referee to win a penalty against Celtic in the qualifying round.
After an impressive opening to the season, back-to-back defeats against Manchester United and then Manchester City on Saturday had doused optimism at the north London club.
But Wenger can take heart from the way his side showed tremendous spirit to dig out a much-needed victory.
"Eduardo is a great player and you know he can always turn up with something," Wenger said.
"They caught us cold at the start. They were fighting for every single one-on-one and it was a very difficult game. But what happened in the first few minutes can happen to any team in the world.
