However, in the second half they came out the brighter and saw chances come and go. We were clearly struggling to find our rhythm as Thun pressed on, and should have been behind after a Thun free kick went in as a perfectly good goal but was wrongly ruled out for offside. Offsides has been the theme throughout as the flag happy lino's couldn't keep them down, and this really hindered both teams as neither could get into a prolonged passage of play.
With the game seemingly petering out into a 0-0 draw, we broke forward, and a neat pass found Van Persie in the area, and his turn fooled the defender who did enough to bring Robin down which gave us a penalty after some confusion that is, with the referee being overruled by his linesman. Pires stepped up, and with no Henry on the pitch he decided to take it the old fashion way, slamming it into the right hand side of the net to see us keep our 100% record and cruise through as group winners.
Manuel Almunia (7) A bread and butter display with two smart saves, good kicking, and well taken crosses.
Pascal Cygan (5) A slight improvement on Wigan, but still his positioning was poor, and today his passing let him down.
Sol Campbell (6) His passing and decision making is giving me cause for concern just lately. It was poor all night, with misplaced passes becoming common place. Hopefully he'll sort this out soon.
Philippe Senderos (7) A rock at the back, and he moved forward well to give us an extra midfield option.
Emmanuel Eboue (7) Great defending bar one sloppy pass and some excellent forward play which nearly resulted in a goal two or three times.
Jose Reyes (6) An average display, but he looked more comfortable being that he was playing in his natural position. Some good long range passing early on was the highlight of his evening.
Alexandre Song (6) A poor Thun midfield didn't allow him to live us to his reputation of being a hard tackler. His passing was good over short distances.
Mathieu Flamini (6) Got stuck in and played with more confidence than in previous games.
Freddie Ljungberg (6) Good off the ball running again saw him get little result. However, his link up play was good in spells.
Robin Van Persie (7) Wrongly flagged offside at least 3 times in the first half. His play without the ball caused Thun problems, and eventually led to the dismissal. A nice turn saw him earn us the penalty that won us the game.
Thierry Henry (6) Not at his best, but he still peeled away from his man with ease.
Subs:
Cesc Fabregas (6) Linked the midfield and attack well.
Lauren (6) Stormed forward and was hard in the tackle. Hopefully he will continue at left back with Eboue fitting in on the right side.
Robert Pires (5) Scored the goal but rarely featured otherwise.