The first ten minute of the half were a dream for Montpellier, the remaining 35 minutes though, not so much.
Montpellier Vs. Arsenal, 2012 UEFA Champions League: Halftime Score, Gunners Recover From Slow Start
Despite looking the better side early, things were not well in the opening ten minutes for Arsenal. Abou Diaby picked up a yellow card within 20 seconds of the kickoff for a clumsy, studs up tackle and nine minutes later, things got even worse. Thomas Vermaelen made an ill advised tackle on Younes Belhanda just inside the box and failed to get any of the ball. The referee didn't have a great view, but the fifth official behind the goal appeared to make the call and Montpellier were awarded a penalty. Belhanda went to the spot and cheekily beat Vito Mannone with soft chip.
Fear not Arsenal fans, the Gunners turned things around quickly. In the 16th minute, a great first pass from Santi Cazorla was one touched by Olivier Giroud to Lukas Podolski who buried his shot past Geoffrey Jourdren. Minutes later Carl Jenkinson found Gervinho with a great cross right in front of goal and the midfielder quickly made it 2-1 for Arsenal.
Needless to say the joy was sucked out of the Stade De La Mosson faster than Mega Maid sucking the air out of the planet Druidia.
To Montpellier’s credit, they recovered from the two quick goals and looked dangerous as the half wore on. They’ll no doubt be less than pleased being down at halftime, but they are still in this match and there no reason to believe they aren’t capable of finding a result. The first step will be cleaning up their passing in the final third, which was extremely sloppy at times. So more shots against Mannone wouldn’t be a bad idea either.
Arsenal, their two goals in two minute burst aside, looked fairly pedestrian. They have the lead however so that’s really all that matters.
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