Arsene Wenger

Published: 19 February 2014
by PAUL COWLING at the Emirates

Champions League
Arsenal 0, Bayern Munich 2

ARSENE Wenger vowed that his team “will fight to the very end” after Arsenal’s Champions League dreams were once again left in tatters by Bayern Munich last night (Wednesday).

Having knocked the Gunners out of Europe at the same stage of the competition last season, the German giants returned to the Emirates Stadium to net a 2-0 win in the first-leg, last-16 tie.

Afterwards a deflated Wenger admitted that his side “made mistakes”, but insisted they could repeat the heroics that saw them record a famous 2-0 win at the Allianz Arena last season. “Everything went against us,” he said. “We should have been 3-0 up before they even got a sniff in the game.

“We made big mistakes, but our spirit was absolutely fantastic. The tie isn’t over, we will go to Germany and give it a go.”

It looked like Arsenal were going to get off to a dream start when Mesut Ozil was brought down in the box by Jerome Boateng after only nine minutes. But having picked himself up off the turf, the German playmaker squandered the chance as his careless spot kick was easily saved by Manuel Neuer. Wenger’s side paid the ultimate penalty for missing such a golden chance.

The game, and possibly the tie, looked over from the 37th minute when Arsenal were reduced to 10-men, and Bayern awarded a penalty.

Toni Kroos clipped the ball over the Gunners’ rearguard, and Arjen Robben easily beat Wojciech Szczesny to the ball, only to be wipped out by the Polish goalkeeper, who was shown a red card for his efforts. Amazingly, Wenger’s side were handed a reprieve when David Alaba missed the resulting spot kick.

From then on in it was always going to be backs against the wall for the Gunners, a game plan that lasted just 14 second half minutes.

Bayern captain Philipp Lahm found Toni Kroos, and the midfielder delightfully curled the ball into the top corner.

Three minutes from time Bayern struck again, this time courtesy of a well-placed header from substitute Thomas Muller. The 2-0 defeat was somewhat harsh on Arsenal, who defended resiliently after going down to 10 men.

Per Mertesacker echoed Wenger’s views after the game that the tie was far from over. “We have to remind ourselves that we won 2-0 in Munich last season, so why not again? Anything can happen in football.”