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MOTD- Bayern Munich 1-1 Arsenal (agg 3-1)

By on March 11, 2014

Some Arsenal fans might be able to look on the bright side and note that they performed fairly well against a Bayern Munich side that has basically been rolling over their competition for the past year, but for most, their main thought will be that daunting “what if.” What if Mesut Ozil had made that penalty in the first leg of their Champions League tie?  What if they had scored one in that first leg?  There was even a period of the match tonight, right after Lukas Podolski made it all square at the Allianz Arena, where Arsenal fans and players alike feel like they probably should have gone ahead and threatened Bayern’s aggregate lead.  But in the end the overwhelming task of facing the reigning champions of the competition proved too much for Arsene Wenger’s side.  A dominant Bayern, who wholeheartedly deserved the victory, prevailed.

Yet manager Pep Guardiola might have one worry in the fact that his side failed to put the tie to bed even earlier.  Even in the opening stages the home side dominated possession, but failed to find a way through a sturdy Arsenal defense.  Bayern had one slight chance twenty-minutes in when Arjen Robben sliced a volley into the ground and over the crossbar from Franck Ribery far post cross after the Frenchman had worked his way down the left, and saw a goal rightly disallowed for offside soon after.

David Alaba then dragged a tame effort well wide and Mario Mandzukic headed over from ten yards, but Bayern waited until the forty-fourth minute to create their first real chance.  Mario Gotze pounced on Arsenal’s attempted clearance of an Alaba cross and brought it down with his chest fifteen yards out from goal before slamming a quick volley towards the bottom corner, which Lukasz Fabianski dived low to his right to block.  However, both sides would be more clinical in the second half.

In fact, Bayern grabbed an opener just eight minutes into the second period when Ribery cut in from the left before turning Bacary Sagna inside out and slipping it through to Bastian Schweinsteiger, who took one touch to set up a shot which he tucked into the back of the net above the diving Fabianski.  Yet in the most unexpected twist of the tie Arsenal came back with an immediate response in the form of an equalizer.  Podolski shoved Philipp Lahm off the ball on the right side of the box, and while all the Bayern defenders turned to the referee for a free-kick Podolski sprinted in on goal prior to slamming a shot from an almost impossible angle above Manuel Neuer into the roof of the net.

Arsenal would have liked to have used their new-found momentum to pressure Bayern further, yet the English Premier League side utterly failed to make so much of a dent in the German champion’s defense.  Their only consolation was that they didn’t allow another, which looked certain to happen when Bayern won a penalty in the dying moments of the match.  Robben was bundled over by Laurent Koscielny on the left side of the box, but Fabianski somehow managed to stop Thomas Müller’s low spot-kick aimed down the middle with his feet and then turning around to tip it away from the oncoming Müller.  However, the tie was already all but over, making Fabianski’s save done in vain, with Bayern, not Arsenal, advancing to the quarterfinals of the Champions League.
Man of the Match: Arjen Robben

About Alex Morgan

Alex Morgan, founder of Football Every Day, lives and breaths football from the West Coast of the United States in California. Aside from founding Football Every Day in January of 2013, Alex has also launched his own journalism career and hopes to help others do the same with FBED. He covers the San Jose Earthquakes as a beat reporter for QuakesTalk.com and his work has also been featured in the BBC's Match of the Day Magazine.