Barca impresses Walcott

(GSM) – Arsenal’s goal-scoring hero Theo Walcott has compared Barcelona’s passing to video game during several moments at the Emirates Stadium.

The Gunners survived a first-half onslaught by the Catalonia giants, when Pep Guardiola’s men could have been out of sight, but for some brilliant goalkeeping by Manuel Almunia.

However, Walcott has warned the Champions League holders that the Gunners will be the ones who will take take control in the Camp Nou next week.

Arsenal trailed to a brace from Zlatan Ibrahimovic but hit back to draw level, giving themselves a fighting chance when they head to Spain.

However, Arsenal’s courageous efforts came at a cost as captain Cesc Fabregas – who would have missed the return against his old club after collecting a booking – suffered what he fears could be a broken leg in the penalty incident which had got the hosts level.

Russian forward Andrey Arshavin expects to be out of action for at least a couple of weeks with a calf problem, while manager Arsene Wenger does not expect veteran William Gallas to play again after the veteran defender broke down on his comeback from eight games out.

It could, though, have been much, much worse for Wenger’s young squad had Barcelona capitalised on their early dominance, when Arsenal were made to look ordinary and struggled to gain control of the ball.

Walcott watched the first half from the bench, before making a major impact on the match as his equaliser set up Arsenal’s impressive finale.

The 21-year-old forward accepts the Spanish giants are a class act, but sees no reason why Arsenal cannot get the result they need to progress next Tuesday night.

“In a way, as a young player growing up and still learning about the game, it was a fantastic experience just to watch some world-class players,” Walcott said.

“It was like someone was holding them with a PS3 controller, controlling them all the time.

“Barcelona did play well for 60 minutes and then sort of died off for the last 30 minutes, but to play at that sort of tempo is very hard to do for the whole game.

“We are a very fit team and we came right back at them.

“It will be a very tough game there, but if we get an early goal and frustrate them then it will be a great game.

“We need to get the ball down and play, to frustrate them, like they did to us for the first 15 minutes especially when they kept the ball and created a lot of chances.”