Villarreal vs Arsenal - El Madrigal, Villarreal, Spain - Tuesday 25th April 2006

Having missed the home leg last week by working in Gent, I had to content myself with just one of the semi final games. This is the furthest Arsenal have ever got in the European Cup, so by default, this second leg is very high up on the list of "most important Arsenal games - ever". Only 1,100 tickets in the away end also made for a potentially special evening - for those lucky enough to get into the Arsenal section.

As with the Juventus away game earlier in the month, defending a tight lead, against a team with a great home record, wasn't going to be easy. The "Yellow Submarine" promised us a trip to "yellow hell", and looking at the home fans before the game, there did seem to be an awful lot of yellow in evidence. Villarreal is an absolutely tiny town, no more than a large village really. Walking for 5-10 minutes from the "centre", you are fully in the countryside. And, the ground is in a very tightly packed residential neighbourhood, with very narrow streets all around it - practically just 4 alleyways in fact.

The stadium itself was accessed very easily (for these kinds of games, you always expect difficulty on the way in), in fact there was a great bar, no more than 10 yards from the away entrance, and the locals were extremely friendly all over town. A small stadium, holding 22,000 people, and it just seemed incredible that a Champions League semi final was being held in such a small place. From the stadium, you could see mountains not far into the distance, and the warm, clear night seemed just perfect for a European away game.

The game itself, much like the Juventus away game, was awful to watch. With such a slim lead, and in all honesty a weak, disinterested performance from Arsenal, it was tense all the way through. Villarreal had 2 or 3 real chances to score, and Arsenal rode their luck far more than I would have wanted them to, throughout the game. It took 60 minutes for Arsenal to get a corner, and we really didn't seem interested in attacking. At the start of the second half, a pitch invader came along, and threw a Barcelona shirt at Thierry Henry - which hopefully will help persuade him to stay with Arsenal!

Then, with 89 minutes on the clock, disaster. Sorin burst into the penalty area, waited to feel the slightest brush from Clichy, and hit the ground. The referee gave the softest penalty in the world, and the whole away section gasped, then sank to their seats en masse. That was it - with so little on show up front, if Villarreal equalised, they would certainly go onto win in extra time.

But, it didn't matter in the end. A weak penalty, a good save by mad Jens Lehmann, and the away end erupted again. I went crazy when Lehmann saved, before realising that the ball was still loose in the danger area - when it went clear, I went mad all over again. Three minutes of injury time later (which strangely were less tense than the previous 20 minutes), the final whistle blew, and all hell broke loose. Many, many people around me in the back row were crying - unable to believe that Arsenal had just qualified for the Champions League Final. I have to type that again to believe it - Arsenal have qualified for the Champions League Final.

9 hours later, I reached home, after a nightmare trip back to London. I really didn't care. Que sera sera, whatever may be may be, we're going to Gay Paree, que sera sera.