Deadly Depor shoot down Gunners

Both sides knew a win for either side would have ensured their place in the last eight and it was the Spaniards who took it with first half goals from Juan Valeron and a deflected Nourredine Naybet effort.

It was Arsenal's first defeat in at home in the Champions League this season and their first in 19 games since Newcastle's win in December.

For Deportivo, it was a double win over Arsenal and another double over an English side having beaten Manchester United home and away in the first phase.

Arsenal created their first real chance of the game after five minutes with a fine flowing move.

Thierry Henry, who was available after a domestic ban, started the move with a one-two with Sylvan Wiltord and he played in Robert Pires free on the left, but Franciso Molina did well to save the midfielder's left-footed effort.

Deportivo captain Fran had the visitor's first effort on goal after nine minutes when he fired a shot from 25 yards, which bounced awkwardly in front of David Seaman, but the England goalkeeper did well to smother the shot.

Dennis Bergkamp came within inches of opening the scoring a minute later, when he saw his brilliant left-footed volley from Pires' pass clip the top of the crossbar.

The visitors had claims for a penalty waved away by Swiss referee Urs Meier in the 13th minute when Diego Tristan went down in the box from under the challenge of Giles Grimandi.

Three minutes later Wiltord went close with a 30-yard shot, which skidded just into the side-netting.

Arsenal continued to push for the crucial opening goal and Igor Stepanovs almost delivered in the 23rd minute, but he headed Pires' corner over the crossbar.

Deportivo stunned the home side when they opened the scoring on the half hour with a superbly worked goal from Valeron.

Fran broke clear in midfield and fed the overlapping Enrique Romano down the left, who got to the by-line and pulled the ball back for the unmarked Valeron to coolly slide the ball past Seaman.

Henry tried to restore things almost immediately when he brought down Pires's pass and hit a first-time shot, which was comfortably saved by Molina.

Seaman produced a tremendous save in the 37th minute to deny Valeron his second goal.

Tristan picked out Valeron in the box with a headed knock-down and Valeron hit a point-blank volley at Seaman, which the veteran shot-stopper somehow kept out.

Three minutes later Deportivo did double their lead with another well-worked move.

Valeron swapped passes with Tristan before picking out Naybet in the box and the centre back hit a shot, which looped off Stepanovs and over the helpless Seaman into the net.

Arsenal came out in the second flying at Deportivo determined to get back into the game and Henry had a chance straight after the restart, but the Frenchman could not get his shot on target.

With Arsenal pouring forward it left spaces at the back for Deportivo to exploit and the impressive Valeron and Tristan were causing the home defence all sorts of problems on the counter-attack.

Tristan shot disappointedly straight at Seaman in the 53rd minutes after being put clear by Fran.

Six minutes later, Victor sliced through the Arsenal defence after a neat one-two with Tristan, but Seaman did well to stand up and block his left-footed shot.

Deportivo came within inches of wrapping up the victory with a third goal after 62 minutes with a superb Tristan free kick after Stepanov's foul on Fran.

The Spanish international chipped a brilliant free-kick right on the edge of the box onto the top of the crossbar with Seaman well beaten.

Arsenal had a great chance to get back into the game three minutes later when they awarded a penalty.

Substitute Freddie Ljungberg with almost his first touch latched onto Bergkamp's defence-splitting pass and rounded Molina only to be brought down by the Spanish international.

The home fans called for Molina's dismissal, but Meier did not even book the goalkeeper and The Gunners were made to rue that fact.

Henry, who had scored in all of Arsenal's home Champions League games this season, stepped up to take the penalty but Molina produced a brilliant save down to his right to keep the Frenchman's kick out and he was alert enough to divert Kanu's follow-up over the crossbar.

From the resulting corner, Kanu had a goal disallowed for backing into the goalkeeper and an apparent handball.

Henry had a couple of chances late on to get Arsenal back in the game, but the normally deadly striker missed the target.

Arsenal threw everything at Deportivo in the final stages, but the Spanish giants defended well to hold on for a deserved victory.

The result means that Arsenal must match the result of Bayer Leverkusen in their final group game at Juventus next Wednesday to make the last eight.

Bayer moved level on points with Arsenal with a convincing 3-1 win over Juventus at The BayArena to dump the Italians out of the competition.

Home goalkeeper Hans-Jorg Butt fired Bayer in front from the penalty spot after 24 minutes after Cristian Zenoni's foul on Thomas Brdaric, even though it appeared the foul took place on the edge of the box.

Butt, who missed against Barcelona from the spot earlier in the competition, made no mistake this time sending Gianluigi Buffon the wrong way.

Bayer should have had more goals in a first half they dominated, but Juve drew level after 61 minutes through Croatian defender Igor Tudor.

The centre back netted his second goal in four days, heading home Zenoni's cross.

Bayer restored their lead ten minutes later when Brdaric nodded Ze Roberto's free kick past Buffon.

The home side wrapped up the win with the third and final goal in the last-minute from substitute Marco Babic.

The win gives Bayer a great chance to qualify for the quarter finals and they will hope that Juventus can beat Arsenal and that they can get something from their trip to Deportivo La Coruna in the final games of Group D.

Arsenal v Deportivo La Coruna
Bayer Leverkusen v Juventus

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