No I really think Real Madrid did play well, except for Ronaldo, that was dissapointing, Real Madrid created chances, Beckham had a few opportunities that he should have put away, and for most part they had more possession and controlled the ball. Unfortunately their striking position is unfortunate at the moment.

Ronaldo - about to quit Real, the manager says no (conflict), fans fail to support him which leads to lower player morale, and he is getting old which means he is not as good as he was before

Raul - just recovered from an injury i believe that was to his knee? so he won't be in top form after 4-5 games.

Robinho - excellent talent but his lack of experience is what lead to Reals manager to sub him off the field (although in my opinion that was a poor coaching decision)

Beckham played hard that game, he had his mishaps but he made an effort everytime he got the ball, running back for defense and getting open 90% of the time on that right wing was excellent.

Woodgate - With him back there i think Real Madrid would have held the Gunners to a 0-0 tie. With his hamstring problems it puts pressure on the inexperienced defenders.

Cicinho - the main man who caused the goal scoring opportunities for Arsenal. If they had someone of better defensive fundamentals, they definitely would have at least played exceptionally better. However, with Cicinho and his personal vendetta against Reyes in the game caused him to play egotistically and roam up the field like he was stupid. In spite of all this, his chance of a PK was denied by he referee. I know you would agree with the ref, but he beat the player, was brought down, when he could have either passed or shot the ball, bth resulting in goal scoring opportunities.

The linesmen were making poor decisions on offside calls, almost all the offsides called in the game except for 1 by Thieri Henry were most likely onside (which would have led to both Arsenal and Real Madrid chances)

Just because Arsenal had a better chance of scoring on their opportunities does not mean Real did not play well. The reason why they messed up their passes towards the end of the game was because of pressure. Arsenal's goal was an away goal benefiting Arsenal which caused Real to panic and try and get the ball foward to their strikers as quick as possible. I believe if you were down 1-0 (lets say a state championship ) i'm sure u wouldn't be calm and make excellent passes down the field leading to an easy score (exactly my point...) you would rush and try and do everything you can, panicing leads to mistakes and that is what caused Real to lose.

They played well, but not to their best of abilities.

And an interesting game between Bremen and Juventus

oh Kyle Heise, it was 3-2 Werder Bremen over Juventus, sorry but i had to correct you lol !!!!

Werder put 2 goals in with about 5 minutes left in the game. Really changes perspectives of things. Looks like the final 16 games will go down to last minutes and will show how much heart players actually have.