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Adebayor: I can't explain how I missed
Evening Standard 21 Feb 2008
Emmanuel Adebayor today spoke of his shock after his astonishing miss in the last seconds of Arsenal's goalless draw with AC Milan last night.
The Togo striker inexplicably headed a beautiful cross from substitute Theo Walcott against the bar in injury time in the first leg of the last 16 Champions League tie.
It means Arsenal will have to secure a score draw or become the first English team to beat Milan in the San Siro if they are to progress to the quarterfinals when the teams meet again in a fortnight.
"I cannot even explain what happened," said Adebayor. "That is football, and is what we are made of. Sometimes everything is okay, and sometimes the ball just does not want to go into the net.
"I had an amazing chance, but I put the ball onto the bar. The most important thing is to be creating the chances. Hopefully I will put one in at the San Siro. We know it is going to be very difficult in Milan, but we are ready for it."
Arsene Wenger's task in the return leg has been made harder by the loss of Kolo Toure, who limped off with a calf problem and has today been ruled out of action for the next three to four weeks.
Young Spanish midfielder Cesc Fabregas admitted the San Siro was already one of the toughest places to visit, even without the loss of Toure.
"Milan is the hardest place to get a result, definitely," said Fabregas. "It's very difficult. They have a lot of experience, they know how to play, they defend very well, they are very intelligent. They never play around. If they have to kick it out, they will.
"We missed a chance last night but I still think 0-0 is not a bad result. If we score a goal there they have to score two, so we have a good opportunity if we play well."
"Having seen what we have seen last night we can cope with their pace, their experience and we can create chances."
Fabregas was not unhappy with Arsenal's performance in the draw, particularly in light of the weekend mauling at Old Trafford.
He added: "After a big defeat at the weekend we came back well and came back strong. "We can't forget, we didn't play against an average team. We played against a top side like Milan and even then we played well, we had more opportunities, we played better, had more possession, we tackled. we did everything right."
"Unfortunately, sometimes in football the difference is you don't put the ball into the back of the net and we didn't do that."
