Arsenal's Russian midfielder, Andrey Arshavin (right), celebrates after scoring a goal during the Champions League round-of-16, first-leg match against Barcelona on Wednesday at the Emirates stadium in London. Arsenal won 2-1. Lluis Gene / Agence France-Presse

Arsenal manager remains calm after his team's dramatic 2-1 victory at home

LONDON - Arsene Wenger insisted Barcelona remained favorite to progress to the Champions League quarterfinals after Arsenal came from behind to score a dramatic 2-1 victory over the Spanish giant.

A goal apiece from Robin van Persie and Andrey Arshavin in the final 12 minutes sealed a memorable win for the Gunners after a largely dominant Barcelona had taken a first-half lead through David Villa.

Arsenal's slender advantage gives the Premier League side a fighting chance of progressing when the teams meet in the second leg.

But while Wenger is adamant Barcelona will be favorite to prevail, he believes his vibrant young team will be armed with a vital commodity when it enters the Nou Camp on March 8 - belief.

"We are not the favorites now," Wenger said. "But what is important is we believe we have a chance and we'll go for it. Barcelona are still favorites. "But after tonight we know that we can beat them. And we didn't know that last year," said Wenger, referring to last season's quarterfinal, which saw Barcelona crush the Gunners 4-1 in the second leg, 6-3 on aggregate.

"Tonight's result gives us a chance to go to Barcelona with belief. We know that it will be a very difficult game but we will prepare well and be highly focused and try to play our natural game," Wenger said.

"It gives a special lift to my team. Our players have shown their strength and togetherness and this result will reinforce that."

Arsenal's victory was also a vindication of Wenger's unrelenting commitment to attacking football.

While conventional wisdom dictates the only way to beat Barcelona is via containment, Wenger insisted all along his side would be true to its instincts and seek to fight fire with fire.

At the Emirates on Wednesday it proved as good as its word, when, despite ceding possession for long periods, it continued to throw men forward on the counter-attack.

When the final whistle blew, Arsenal had two strikers on the pitch, Nicklas Bendtner and van Persie, complemented by a midfield brimming with creative intent - Samir Nasri, Cesc Fabregas, Jack Wilshere and Arshavin.

"I wanted to go for it offensively," said Wenger, as he explained his risky decision to substitute defensive midfielder Alex Song for Arshavin with Arsenal trailing 1-0 early in the second half.

"We needed to score two goals. I just took a gamble - it could have backfired to 2-0 or 3-0 but it worked.

"I'm very proud for Arsenal tonight. Because everybody urged us to play differently to our nature and this result will strengthen the belief in our philosophy. That's important."

Wenger is only too aware that one big performance from Lionel Messi, however, could see his team's hopes unravel next month.

The mercurial Argentinian threaded through the pass for Villa's opener and came agonizingly close to opening the scoring after 15 minutes, when he committed Wojciech Szczesny with a lovely feint and beat the Arsenal keeper with a delicate dink, only to see his effort trickle just wide of the upright.

"Who doesn't worry about Lionel Messi?" Wenger said. "When we play in Barcelona that will be one of our tasks. But you never can keep him completely quiet. However we can take encouragement from tonight."

Wenger's counterpart, Pep Guardiola, said his side had paid the price for failing to convert more than one of the half-a-dozen openings its famously slick passing play presented.

"In general I'm happy with the performance - the result is the thing I don't like," Guardiola said.

"It was a fantastic match for anyone who likes football. When two teams want to play attacking football its always nice. We will try to turn the tables on them at our place."

Agence France-Presse

(China Daily 02/18/2011 page24)