Jens Lehmann blocked a penalty in the stoppage time to help Arsenal register a goalless draw at Villarreal and advance to the UEFA Champions League finals. The Germany goalkeeper dived left to parry a powerful spot-kick from Argentina and Villarreal playmaker Juan Roman Riquelme in the 90th minute and foil huge celebrations that were about to be triggered in El Madrigal. "We were lucky today, but we deserved to reach the final," Lehmann told ART Sports network after the game. "First I planned to stay in the middle, but I suddenly decided to go to the left and it was a good decision," added the goalkeeper who is set to start for Germany in World Cup 2006. Arsenal qualified on a 1-0 aggregate victory as Ivorian defender Kolo Toure found the net at Highbury last week in the first leg. Lehmann kept a clean sheet for 10 successive games in the Champions League and extended his own record for 745 minutes without conceding a goal.
Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger celebrates Villarreal could have broke the deadlock more than once through efforts from Riquelme, Diego Forlan and Franco but Lehmann was a real nightmare for the home side with a string of heroic saves. The Premiership side played a solid defensive game and had only one chance to score just after the missed penalty when Thierry Henry outpaced two defenders but his low shot was saved by the keeper. Arsenal will play the final match on May 17th in Paris with the winners from Barcelona and Milan who play at the Nou Camp on Wednesday. Barca have an away 1-0 advantage from last week's first leg thanks to a Ludovic Giuly strike in the second half. Lehmann said he doesn't care who will advance from the other tie. "Both sides are very good and Arsenal have to improve if we want to win this trophy," he said.
