flamini fires gunners through published: wednesday 23 august 2006, 22.50cet arsenal fc 2-1 nk dinamo zagreb (agg: 5-1) an injury-time winner from mathieu flamini helped arsenal seal comfortable progress to the group stage.
arsenal fc snatched a late winner with an injury-time goal by mathieu flamini as they came from behind to beat dinamo and secure a place in the uefa champions league group stage.
dynamic dinamo zagreb had already given arsenal a few anxious moments early on in the gunners' first european game at their new north london home before the visitors took the lead in the 12th minute. eduardo da silva made a promising run down the left flank and played a quick one-two with etto, which kolo touré failed to cut out. eduardo punished the error as he blasted a low left-footed shot underneath manuel almunia and into the far corner.
gunners respond arsenal rallied swiftly and robin van persie went close to an equaliser with a drive from ten metres' out that defender mario cvitanović did well to deflect onto the crossbar and away to safety from right on the goalline. minutes later, dutch striker van persie turned cvitanović inside out on the right-hand side of the penalty area only to be foiled by dinamo goalkeeper ivan turina, who also saved well from arsenal captain fredrik ljungberg. dinamo repelled everything else arsenal could muster in the first half and they were well worth their lead at the interval.
glaring miss emmanuel adebayor should have pulled arsenal level eight minutes after the restart when he found himself in a glorious position in space inside the box but the togo international blasted over the bar. the equaliser eventually came in the 77th minute, with van persie supplying a free-kick cross which ljungberg gratefully headed past turina. substitutes thierry henry and theo walcott then combined to tee up flamini to rifle in the winner from close range in stoppage time.
