Well the important thing is that Arsenal won the semi-final against Reading to book our place at the FA cup final at Wembley next month. But it is not the sort of game that was good for those Gooners of a nervous disposition, partly due to the indomitable desire and determination of our opponents and partly due to our own struggles to get into our groove.
The pattern was pretty much the same throughout the match, with Reading keeping a compact shape and the Gunners failing to stretch them too much down the flanks. We did some nice things and our opening goal shortly before halftime was probably the best of them. An exquisite move involving Ramsey, Gibbs and then Ozil who played an inch perfect defence splitting pass to Alexis who showed great skill and ice in his veins to bring it under control, beat the defenders and fire past the keeper.
But although we started the second half looking a bit sharper and more fluent, Reading were level after 10 minutes as a catalogue of errors culminated in Szczesny failing to keep out McCleary’s deflected shot. After that it was a battle with not too many clear cut chances. Arsenal had the best of them but not by much and the tension of extra time was just building to a peak when Reading’s keeper fumbled an Alexis near post shot and it crept in.
We were hanging on a bit but at least we did hang on and now it is all about the Premnier League run in and the Wembley final. Phew!