Arsenal went down 2-1 at Porto in controversial fashion on Wednesday night.They trailed after just 11 minutes of this Champions League Knockout Round first leg when keeper Lukasz Fabianski fumbled Silvestre Valera's cross over his own line.
However they got back on level terms almost immediately when Sol Campbell, playing his first Champions League game since the 2006 Final, nodded in from close range.
It had been an open, nerve-jangling first half but the visitors seemed set to take over after the break. They would probably have led if Tomas Rosicky's strong claims for a penalty had been heard. In the end the result swung on the events of the 51st minute.
That is when Fabianski was ruled to have picked up Campbell's back pass and Falcao scored from a quickly-taken free-kick. Arsenal, and particularly Arsène Wenger, complained loudly that the referee should not have allowed play to restart that swiftly.
Right or wrong, that decision will be the lasting memory of this game. Of course, Wenger's side can all but erase it if they secure safe passage to the last eight with a stereotypical "1-0 to the Arsenal". That is all they have to do.Their fate will be in their own hands on March 7 even if it did not always seem that way this evening.
Wenger's team selection had been hemmed in by a run of injuries in the build up to this game. From the team that had won 1-0 against Liverpool a week earlier, Manuel Almunia (finger), William Gallas (calf), Andrey Arshavin (hamstring) and Alex Song (knee) all dropped out.
Meanwhile a lingering hamstring problem meant Eduardo did not make his anticipated return.
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