After a sloppy first half in which Rafa Benitez's side
scored twice through Lorenzo Insigne and Goran Pandev, the hosts rallied with
second half strikes to secure a deserved draw
Arsenal fought back from two goals down in their Emirates
Cup opener to salvage a late draw with Napoli.
It was a typical Arsenal performance in that individual
errors initially cost them, before a rousing late comeback staved off defeat
and kept their tournament hopes alive.
Lorenzo Insigne opened the scoring after a mistake from
Carl Jenkinson, before Goran Pandev doubled the advantage midway through the
first 45 minutes. Olivier Giroud scored a spectacular bicycle-kick beyond Pepe
Reina, before Laurent Koscielny's downward header
A more than warm reception from a near sellout Emirates
Stadium, gave Arsenal the impetus to start on the front foot, and Serge Gnabry,
playing off the right wing, came within inches of opening the scoring in the
3rd minute, bending his left-foot shot wide of Reina’s far post.
Five minutes later, Gokhan Inler’s delicate 30-yard pass
to Insigne isolated Carl Jenkinson, who made a complete hash of his defensive
header, merely nodding the ball behind him for the pint-sized Italian to latch
onto. Insigne made no mistake from 12 yards out, sidefooting past Lukasz
Fabianski for the opening goal.
Reina, who was making his Napoli debut, distributed
waywardly to Gnabry’s feet and looked well beaten as the 18-year-old clipped a
25-yard lob over the Spaniard, but the effort landed on the roof of the net.
The theme of the day continued in the 15th minute, as
Kevin Friend adjudged Valon Behrami’s tackle in the box to be worthy of a
penalty, as Kieran Gibbs tumbled - a decision that looked more than a little
soft on replays. Reina though, came to Napoli’s rescue, plunging to his left to
keep out Lukas Podolski’s spot-kick.
From there, Napoli settled before doubling their lead 20
minutes before half-time. Marek Hamsik tore through the centre of the Arsenal
midfield, exposing the backline, before slipping Goran Pandev in on goal. The
Bulgarian rounded a hotheaded Fabianski, who came tearing off his line for no
good reason, before clipping the ball into the top corner.
To Arsenal’s credit, they kept coming, and Podolski was
unfortunate to see Reina tip his low drive behind for a corner. The former
Liverpool shot-stopper then reacted well to tip over Per Mertesacker’s header
from the resulting corner.
Pantomime boos greeted the introduction of Gonzalo
Higuain, who moved to Napoli in July despite intense speculation linking him
with a move to the Gunners.
The home side started on the front foot with Jack
Wilshere dictating proceedings and the 21-year-old embarked on a typically
probing run, assisted by a neat one-two with Aaron Ramsey on the edge of the
box. Wilshere, though, could only fire wide of the far post.
After a flurry of substitutions that failed to enliven a
half that struggled to get going, it was left to Giroud to bring Arsenal back
into the game. The Frenchman showed immense strength to hold off Paolo
Cannovaro from a deep corner, and lovely skill to turn an overhead kick at goal
that took the merest of nicks off a motionless Bacary Sagna and beyond Reina.
With 18 minutes to play, Rafa Benitez looked to shore up
the defence, introducing former Liverpool man Andrea Dossena, who promptly got
himself booked for a poor tackle out wide and for the most part it looked as if
they would shut the Gunners out.
However with just a few minutes left on the clock,
Mertesacker headed Mikel Arteta's free-kick at goal, drawing a splendid reflex
save from Reina, but the ball remained in play, allowing the excellent
Koscielny to thunder home the rebound.
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