San Siro hero aglow as Arsenal progress
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
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Goalscorer Emmanuel Adebayor told uefa.com Arsenal FC had "smiles on our faces" after eliminating the holders AC Milan at San Siro – "the temple of football".
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Arsenal FC match-winners Cesc Fabregas and Emmanuel Adebayor were savouring the moment after scoring the late goals which ended the involvement of the defending champions AC Milan at San Siro.
All smiles
Fabregas's long shot on 84 minutes left Milan requiring two goals to get through to the last eight and as the game became stretched Adebayor broke his UEFA Champions League goal drought, dispatching Theo Walcott's right-wing cross to complete a historic 2-0 win at San Siro. "Everybody is happy, we've all got smiles on our faces," Adebayor told uefa.com. "We knew it was going to be very hard but we had a lot of belief and knew that we could do something special at the San Siro - the temple of football."
History boys
Arsenal became the first English side to beat Milan at the Giuseppe Meazza Stadium and the importance of the occasion was not lost on the Togolese international. He said: "We have become a part of the new chapter we are trying to begin in the history of this club, so we very happy about that. Not long ago everyone was saying that we'd blown it in the league and that we would lose to Milan, but after this result everyone has got their confidence back.
World beaters
"Beating this Milan team means we can beat every single team in the world. Now we've got that in our heads we can let ourselves go. We took control of the game really well defensively and we showed that we have a good team spirit. We came here to qualify and actually doing it is something really special. My goal was a simple goal, right in front of the posts. It was probably the easiest goal I've ever scored but it's also the most important I've scored in my whole career."
Memorable night
If Adebayor's goal was easy, Fabregas's was lucky, according to the modest Spaniard: "When I hit the crossbar in the first half I should have maybe passed the ball and my goal was maybe it was a little bit lucky because Adebayor touched it a little bit. But I think we deserved it. We didn't come here to defend, we came here and attacked and we're proud of what we've achieved. The atmosphere afterwards was fantastic. These nights are the ones you will always remember so you have to enjoy them."
