Pride won, battle lost
Arsenal
travelled to Munich seemingly without hope of overturning a 3-1 loss in the
first leg of their last-16 clash with Bayern a fortnight previous. However,
manager Arsene Wenger insisted it was still possible for his side to come back
and advance into the quarter-finals of the world’s most prestigious club
competition.
The
usually vociferous Bayern support were stunned into silence after only three
minutes in a snowy Munich when Olivier Giroud finished from inside the six-yard
box after a fine cross from the right by Theo Walcott. It was a sign of intent
from the away side that they’d come to do everything in their power to make it
through to the next round.
Bayern
Munich seemed subdued and there was none of the swagger that they displayed at
the Emirates Stadium, perhaps due in part to the lack of key players such as
Ribery, Schweinsteiger and Boateng in their team. Despite that fact, there remained
plenty of quality in the German league leaders’ ranks to allow them to capitalise
on their winning position, but instead they chose to sit tight and rarely
threatened the Arsenal defence.
Arsenal
went in with a 1-0 lead at half-time having enjoyed a comfortable opening period
of play and there was little change in the second half, as Bayern struggled to
create any clear-cut chances. Arjen Robben got clean through after 67 minutes,
but was thwarted by a decent save from Arsenal stand-in keeper Fabianski.
Barring that opportunity, Bayern lived off only half-chances and Arsenal’s
players visibly grew in confidence with every moment that passed.
One
particularly noteworthy point from the Arsenal display was their defensive
discipline, which of course has been a problem for them for the majority of
this season. The back-line of Jenkinson, Mertesacker, Koscielny and Gibbs
worked well together as a unit and the much-criticised Fabianski made a fine
comeback into the starting line-up with some smart saves.
Arsenal
knew as the final ten minutes approached that they had to do something quickly
in a bid to grab a place in the next stage of the competition. On 83 minutes
the twisting-and-turning of sub Gervinho almost produced a breakthrough with
his toe-poke effort trickling just wide. Three minutes later the Gunners
managed to bring the tie level on aggregate at 3-3 when Koscielny headed home
from ten yards inside the unguarded right-hand upright. Bayern failed to put a
defender on either post and it proved costly once the French centre-back nodded
home ahead of Dante.
It
was a nervous few moments for Bayern until the final whistle came three minutes
into injury-time, signalling the end of Arsenal’s Champions League hopes. The
Munich giants advanced on away goals, but will have to markedly improve their
performance level from what they produced last night if they want to go much
further.
Follow me on Twitter: @davewh1980
No comments:
Post a Comment