Arsenal: Raya; White, Saliba, Gabriel, Kiwior; Jorginho, Rice, Ødegaard; Saka, Havertz, Martinelli
Subs: Ramsdale, Hein, Tomiyasu, Zinchenko, Partey, Elneny, Smith Rowe, Vieira, Nelson, Trossard, Jesus, Nketiah
Arsenal have drawn 2-2 with Bayern Munich in the first leg of the Champions League quarter-final. Bukayo Saka gave Arsenal the lead, before Serge Gnabry and Harry Kane responded for Bayern. Leandro Trossard leveled the tie in the second half.
Mikel Arteta made two changes to the team that beat Brighton on Saturday. Jakub Kiwor returned to the lineup at left back, while Gabriel Martinelli made his first start since March 4. Oleksandr Zinchenko and Gabriel Jesus dropped to the bench.
First Half
The early exchanges were end to end before Arsenal and then Bayern both had periods of possession. When Bayern played directly into their front players, Arsenal were very quick to drop into a low block.
Arsenal’s first chance came on 7 minutes. Saka was quickly into Davies to win the ball back. Saka played into Havertz on the edge of the box, who laid the ball off to Ødegaard, who then found Martinelli. From the edge of the D, Martinelli’s left footed shot went wide of Neuer’s post.
On 9 minutes, Davies trod on Saka’s Achilles, and was booked, meaning the Canadian is suspended for the second leg.
Arsenal were already targeting Davies side, and on 12 minutes, the Gunners profitted. Ødegaard played over the top for Saka. Davies won the initial challenge, but Arsenal recovered the ball. White slipped it into Saka behind Davies, Saka drove into the box, used Eric Dier as a screen, and curled a low shot past Neuer to make it 1-0.
Arsenal should’ve made it 2-0 on 16 minutes. Again, targeting the left hand side, Ødegaard played a long ball for White. The header went to Havertz, who slipped White in, but his shot was straight at Neuer.
That miss would come back to bite Arsenal a minute later. Raya came out for a long ball that Gabriel had under control. With Raya out, Gabriel had to play forward and gave the ball away after Kiwior missed the pass. Sane pounced, and Goretzka slipped Gnabry in behind White, and the former Arsenal youngster shot through Raya to make it 1-1.
Arsenal had a good chance to retake the lead on 27 minutes. Saka’s inswinging corner caused chaos in front of Neuer’s goal, but no one could get a telling touch as the ball bounced, and Neuer claimed.
On 30 minutes, Sane won a penalty. Sane skimmed Kiwior on the halfway line, drove on, and on, rode a challenge from Jorginho, evaded Gabriel, and then was nudged over by Saliba. Kane took the penalty, and scored to make it 2-1 Bayern.
Bayern were in again on the counter attack, as Sane streaked through the middle. As Ødegaard and White ran back, Sane cut inside, and White got back, and Ødegaard won the ball back.
The match fell into a pattern. Arsenal had more of the play, but Bayern were happy to sit off, knowing they had the threat on the counter attack. Kane, annoyingly, was doing a good job of winning fouls off of Gabriel and Saliba around the halfway line, providing Bayern with an outlet.
Second Half
Mikel Arteta brought Zichenko on for Kiwior at half-time. Zinchenko’s first positive action was to play a good ball over the top for Martinelli. Arsenal couldn’t create a shot, but won the ball back and Rice won a free kick on the left sided touchline. From the free kick, Rice got the cross wrong, with the ball ending up on top of Neuer’s goal.
On 55 minutes, Kane was booked for elbowing Gabriel while backing into him–the classic Kane move. There was a VAR check, but the yellow card was deemed enough.
Kane was then involved in Bayern’s next move, with a good ball out to the left. Goretzka then got the ball at the edge of the D, shifted, and then shot wide of Raya’s goal.
Saka won a free kick in a dangerous position, but then Ødegaard looked for a clever free kick that didn’t come off. At the other end, Zinchenko and Martinelli were able to stop Sane as he ran into the box, but then Jorginho gave the ball away. Laimer, though, shot over the bar as Arsenal continued to look nervy. Havertz had a penalty shout as he collected Zinchenko’s pass, but the referee waived it away. On replay, it looked the right decision, as Havertz was looking for the contact.
Sane then cut Arsenal apart on the break again. He drove inside, away from Ødegaard, and played in Gnabry, who shot over Raya’s goal. It would be Sane’s last action of the match, as he was replaced by Kingsley Coman on 66 minutes.
Arteta then made a double switch, with Gabriel Jesus and Trossard replacing Jorginho and Gabriel Martinelli. Havertz dropped into midfield and Jesus went upfront. Jesus’ first action was to collect possession, check back, and set up a shot for Rice on the edge of the box that was blocked. Kane then had a shot blocked by Rice as Bayern continued to look dangerous on the break.
Arsenal continued to probe, but Bayern, sitting in a mid-block, were clogging the passing lanes. With Guerreiro replacing Gnabry, and White getting forward less in the second half, Arsenal were less effective at utilizing the right hand side.
But on 76 minutes, Arsenal broke through! Rice won possession from a throw in, and Saka played into Gabriel Jesus. Jesus, dribbling in the box beat one defender, beat de Light, and then set up Trossard, who passed his shot beyond Neuer to make it 2-2.
After a period of Bayern possession, Saka then did brilliantly to cross across the penalty box, but no Arsenal player was in the box.
On 85 minutes, Thomas Partey replaced Kai Havertz. Partey’s first involvement was to get booked after bringing Musiala down as Bayern threatened on the break. Coman then hit the near post. Partey’s miscued header kept the Bayern move alive, and from Musiala’s quick cutback, Coman’s strike went through Raya’s legs but hit the post.
In the final minute of the 5 added, Saka went through on goal, chopped back and went down in the box under a tackle from Neuer. Despite contact between Neuer and Saka, the referee waved away Arsenal’s claims for a penalty and then blew the final whistle. The tie, then, will be settled a week from tomorrow.
Could have been better but we are still well in this!
Will be hard as hell but we can win at the Allianz, we’ve shown today we can hang with them pretty easily when we don’t let our nerves get to us. Looked a lot better when Zinchenko, Jesus and Trossard came on, reckon at least the former two should start in Munich, their experience and cool demeanor in tight spaces in these big matches is absolutely crucial. And anyone who judges Jesus purely by his goals should be banned from having football opinions, the assist for the second goal was football art at its highest form and he’s done that… Read more »
This game was all about moments. 1 goal up and in control, White had a great chance to double the lead. Had he buried that, it would have been an uphill task for Bayern. Then we let them into the game with two mistakes they punished.
Not bothered. The boys will learn from this and the game will be different at the Allianz where the attacking onus will be on Bayern. We will get our chances, hopefully we can take them. On to another big one on Sunday!
Wow wow, not a word criticising Raya the “ball at the feet” GK anywhere in today’s blog or comment section; instead phrases & idioms are being thrown at having words like Mistakes, lapse in concentration etc etc. Anyway I think the game was all about not getting influenced by the occasion too much but unfortunately few of our players had been overwhelmed. The ref I thought had a brilliant game, but a bit shocked that VAR wasn’t invoked for the Saka penalty incident at the death. Still since away goals doesn’t really matter anymore, I think it would be a… Read more »
I think we are gonna be better in second leg.We have been good at fixing our mistakes this season. We are gonna win and face Madrid in semis. Not because they have a higher chance, just that I don’t want City. Tired of them!
If we go through, we need to get city otherwise is goodbye to the premier league
Getting City and losing to them is gonna be more demoralizing I guess. Every step we take in CL is actually gonna boost our confidence. RM is an unfamiliar dream team for us, and I guess the team will be more pumped to face them and its gonna reflect in PL.
We are not going to win all the remaining 7 games left in the EPL. Liverpool will not win them, if city go out of champions league, they will have better chances to win all the rest of their games and get ahead of us
Are you a clairvoyant??
I had a feeling you were going to say that
Most of the time
Fuck that shit. Give me Real Madrid over two more games against those Blue Manc cretins any day
Robbed
criminal decision – corrupted uefa strikes again!
His leg was way out. Can’t fault them for thinking Saka initiated contact even if it was a natural move.
You can fault them for not having VAR review it though! Even Rio bloody Ferdinand thought it was a surefire penalty.
Yeah let’s all be honest the ref got it right, he had a good game, he didn’t even book Havertz clearly diving in the box when there was no contact at all, an open game where I think we are still learning at this level, maybe having a full voiciverous crowd made us overload in forward positions when we could of been more compact in defence, who knows, we now belong at this level, not a easy task to go through but i wouldn’t bet against it, starting Jesus would be best choice
I actually thought the ref was decent for a change. He even issued a card to the otherwise card immune Kane.
A yellow which should have been a straight red
Stop it. No one gets a red for that. Ever.
The keeper also puts his right leg out and towards Saka. I’m 50:50 on it. Really they both moved towards each other..
This is correct, they both moved towards each other and given this fact, the only choice for the ref was no penalty, especially given the time or lack thereof on the clock. If that had been given against us, I would have been very upset. Ref didn’t decide this game as manager said, we gifted them two goals. Time to tighten up at the back and counter them next week.
That’s a pen at the end. Stone wall. How has VAR not called that back?
I want to agree, but saka did leave his leg in… just take rhe open goal!! Still, decent result and all to play for
I so, so wanted that to be a penalty but if anything I think Saka kicked out at Neuer and fell down.
Yep, agreed. The frustrating part is Saka could’ve probably earned the penalty with a natural motion, but he kicked outwards to try to make it clearer.
Yeah, Harry Kane gets that penalty call 100% of the time, naturally.
Or tried to go around him!
I agree. I don’t know this ref, and he’s got to be top notch to do a CL game, but I would really have appreciated at least a VAR check on it.
Refs first knockout game in CL. Either bottled it or wanted the glory.
Neuer also kicks towards Saka though. It’s 50:50
A hell of a reality check, that was not a great Bayern team but we just couldn’t handle them or the occasion, mentality issues. Shows that we still have a long way to go as a team and we have to keep improving in the summer transfer market. I really don’t give us a huge chance I’m the return leg but you never know. Maybe better not to face City over two legs. I really hope it doesn’t derail our momentum in the league.
Can’t say I’m not worried about Martinelli.
Yeah, I though Saliba in particular was a bit overwhelmed by the occasion. Trying a bit too hard.
I think it just shows how far we’ve come and how quickly. These are mostly young and relatively inexperienced players whose time will come, just maybe now is too soon.
I disagree, we have top top players, their time is now but you can’t win all the time.
He had some nervy moments, and also some wonderful touches and dribbles. To say he was overwhelmed by the occasion is really overstating it.
I agree with you fully, this was experience standing well against newcomers of sought. Also thought the players was sloppy with some of the passes especially at the end their. A lot of improvement needed, no complains though, this is still a very good team with great potential.
Absolutely, hopefully this experience will stand them in good stead. And we didn’t lose, there’s all to play for next week!
Agreed. We did well to get back in it but we’re not smart enough to handle teams like this in the CL. Our defence goes from impenetrable to soft treacle. Some of the Arsenal fans who were arrogantly predicting a rout need to give their heads a wobble.
how will crashing out of the CL QF not derail momentum?
Mentality issues yes, but the kind that I would rather simply descirbe as inexperience at the biggest stage. It was always gonna be like that imo. I actually think the return leg should suit us better. Home leg against a “bad” Bayern side (as the narrative goes), full house etc. is always gonna play with these young players’ minds. Away from home the whole team will be much more disciplined and I firmly believe it should suit us better in that regard. As for Martinelli I’m not particularly worried. He’s just back from the injury, he hasn’t had the best… Read more »
I don’t see why we can’t win there. We’ve gotten results at Anfield and Etihad, possibly tougher places to play, and Bayern are worse than those two teams. Any notion that we can’t do it is just a psychological barrier.
I don’t think it was nerves and inexperience. I think it was more a bit of a mismatch of tactics in the first half and the fact that Bayern are a very very good technical team and I think too many people got caught up in their league collapse thinking it would be easy..
I think we win at the Allianz. Arteta will sort out the tactics better and there will be absolutely zero complacency, it’ll be all guns blazing. I can’t wait!
It was definitely nerves and inexperience. The mistakes all over the pitch that we never usually see.. It looked a lot like last season’s run in and the one before that.
Same as Newcastle 2 seasons ago, same as last season’s run in. We’re learning to handle pressure.
Wouldn’t say they were overwhelmed, probably a little surprised by Bayern’s endless press and counter. While we slogged it out at Brighton they walked through a game and lost at a team near the bottom of the Bundesliga.
We struggled a bit at Left back, a little surprised Tomi didn’t start, probably will in return leg. Kane should have gone for deliberate elbow to the throat, pretty sure if other way round Gabriel would probably have gone but either way we live to fight another day.
I thought the team led him down. He hardly got a pass from a team mate. They were always passing towards the right, it ws infuriating to watch. On the occasion he did get a pass he was double with no support runner lapping him, which meant he was double teamed. Which meant he never properly got into the game.
At least Bojack didn’t score there
I missed the liveblog
It was up. When there isn’t a dedicated liveblog post, just go to the day’s main blog post, the link is always at the bottom
It was there…
and the team news.
I guess even blogs got the nerves.
What the…?? He doesn’t even have a second look at it? Disgraceful ref.
First thing, for me defo a penalty at the end. How that wasn’t and Kane escaped a red card for a clear elbow baffles me. Having said all that, we played like headless idiots tonight, Bayern couldn’t believe their luck. Brainless decision after brainless decision. Passionate imbeciles 2-2 bang average, smart German team. Smarten up for the second leg or you’re out.
I agree, hopefully we’ll learn for second leg and win it 1-0.
We made some mistakes at the back and could’ve easily conceded two more, but could’ve also scored two more easily (Ben White miss in front of keeper and Saka clear penalty). If it had finished 4-4 I don’t think either team could’ve complained much.
And I think you can pretty safely say we’re not likely to make as many mistakes as that in the second leg, given we basically made as many errors in this game as we had since the beginning of 2024. Nerves will settle, experience will kick in. We’ve played in even more difficult arenas than Allianz and come away with results.
But we’ve not yet won those difficult away games. We need another level to get through this.
Winning and losing in football is sometimes just a couple of bounces of the ball. I agree we’ve not yet played those away games so well to clearly deserve a win, but we definitely played them well enough to be able to steal one if luck had gone our way, as it did for example at home vs. City – we weren’t better in that game but we still won it because of a wicked deflection. We can play well enough in Munich to put ourselves in a position for something similar to happen, and then you never know, it… Read more »
We don’t need to win. Draw and beat them on pens.
Seeing Kane again dampens the mood. He’s such a cheating, diving fouling cunt. Christ I hate him.
It’s rare that I disagree with absolutely every single point somebody makes in a comment but, congratulations, you’re that rarity.
Good for you.
I still can’t work out if it was a pen or not…
Certainly no capitulations like the last 3 times. The boys can be proud of their performance. We’ll take 2-2 and beat them in their backyard, and hopefully Kane takes an elbow to the throat just like the one he gave out to Gabriel.
COYG!
Saka stay up and finish into a freaking empty net!!
What are you smoking?
His touch past Neuer was clumsy and I don’t think he would have been able to get onto it and stick it in the net. I think we had missed chances and didn’t play our best, but Bayern and the situation seemed to be a spectre hanging over our heads. Onto the next leg – I definitely think we can beat them there.
I don’t think he can. Neuer keeps coming. Maybe he was a bit too knackered too.
Yes, he was obviously knackered. Arteta should have replaced him. Also, we need to talk about Martinelli. He’s been having a lot of stinkers this season.
He got absolutely no service + Kiwior behind him was all nerves. Cant blame him much for tonight.
thank you. someone said it
He was tripped. Behave.
I felt saka looked for the contact. If Kane had been given a pen for the same move I’d be furious.
One would 100% have got the decision if it was him
Kane*
I want this fucking referee interviewed… he’ll probably say in a stupid “well the time was up so I whistled”… Fucking prick
Tuchel mentioned Gabriel’s handball at the 66-67 minute, from goal kick restart. Match was at 1-2. Tuchel says that the The ref called it a kid’s mistake and he wasn’t going to give a penalty for that. TNT showed the reply. The ref whistled. Rays passes to Gabriel who picks up the ball with his hand snd resets the play. It’s a clear penalty, if applying the rules.
Ref was evening up then.
I cannot believe that decision at the end and then NO check!? How can there be NO check???
Corrupt UEFA c<nts at it again, we've all seen this before. At least they should've checked, what is VAR for if not for checking a last minute potential penalty on a clear goal scoring chance?
They check everything. They decided to stick with the refs call obviously.
They did not. Ref blew the whistle before the check. And if they did check all the possible angles, they would’ve seen Neuer sticking out his right leg to intercept at the last moment, and Saka’s right foot in a natural position trying to jump above Neuer’s foot.
Lads how in the name of god was that not a penalty??!?!
Probably because they both let a leg dangle, it was 50/50 for me on the leg dangling. Although Kane would have been awarded that penalty.
Overall, a bit disappointed. Dont think we should be too worried by the second leg though. I also thought Saka could have stayed on his feet at the end. What a great last kick of the game that would have been. Even in a different team, H*try K*ne is still a despicable player!
Should have been a red for the intentional elbow to the face.
He’s a nasty losing lump.
Think we’ll be more settled for the next leg and have a point to prove. We’ll scrape through.
I think I might hate Harry Kane
I know I do. And Muller, such an annoying prick.
He’s pretty despicable, you can definitely see the guy who appealed to have a goal taken away from a teammate!
I hate him too, but quality player unfortunately
I hope he gets endless cavities and hemorrhoids.
The one endless cavity in his head never closes.
Get in line.
A spirited by naive performance.
We’ve built our entire season on great defending but looked awful defensively tonight.
Really terrible game management after going 1-0 up. We gifted them the equaliser then conceded a bad penalty. That cnut had to score, didn’t he?
This tie is wide open, but we have made it unnecessarily difficult for ourselves.
Bayern are defensively weak so we still have a decent chance of going through.
Disappointing night.
Much needed positivity cheers Fats.
Blimey Fats, I just wrote a comment about disagreeing with every point in a comment above, now I’m astonished to say (because it’s you) that I agree with every word in your comment.
I’m only trying to be honest.
BTW: I thought it WAS a penalty at the end, but not a stonewall one. Had the ref given that type of penalty against us I don’t think too many people would be arguing about it.
Going by the foul standards in the CL, how on earth is that not a penalty. Saka may have maximised the contact, but even if he hadn’t Neuer would have brought him down.
“but even if he hadn’t Neuer would have brought him down.”
Very possibly, which is why the leg-dangling was a mistake. It’s a cynical trick which refs are probably increasingly trained to spot in real time, and which capable referees therefore will be less likely to be deceived by.
We’ve been victim to it in the past (probably from Kane himself), which is why we’re all being pretty honest about it, I think.
That fat arsed Kardashian c*nt should be banned from the Emirates
Haven’t checked it but it seems like the same ref who sent van Persie off in 2011
He must be using a hell of a lot of Botox and anti aging serum if he is
It was his first CL match tonight.
Please don’t remind me of that ref. That sending off still makes me so angry. He deserves to spend eternity in an infinite groin punching machine.
Now THAT was a bad call, which might also be shown in the fullness of time to have been a corrupt call.
The no penalty decision for Saka tonight was merely a correct call. He looked for and initiated the contact by sticking his leg out as he was going by Neuer. I’d be livid if an opponent “won” a penalty against the Arsenal with that move.
“Saka, this is not the way.”
No, he ain’t. Can’t ever forget that dirty bastard’s stinky face.
I’m sorry but that was a dive , Saka should have put it in the net . If Kane did that we would be raging. Don’t know why we have started to resorted to trying to con the ref , Havertz is another one . Overall a decent result , more than capable of getting a result at their place ,
We gave away two cheap goals. Kiwior got cooked on that left side. Tomi should start the away leg.
Good spirit to come back in the game but a long way to go for this squad. Still some maturing and experience needed in this young team. Our time will come
There were a few performances there that were short at this level and maybe we should calm down our expectations of one or two players.
We all got caught up in our form forgetting that Bayerns whole squad have played at least 40/50 champions league games. This was Saka’s seventh i believe. Look how poor Man city were in the champions league for ages despite being the ‘best’ team. Experience counts. We may go all the way but i suspect heartbreaks before than and that’s okay in the long run. I haven’t been this proud of an Arsenal team in over a decade.
Until you have it, you don’t realize the value of experience of not having to repeat the same mistakes over and over to become more efficient in reaching your goals, in football and in life.
Agreed! Tomi has to play these games for solidity. Manager and players will learn from tonight. We must not forget how this group and coach are well ahead of schedule with theor performances.
People are allergic to admitting Zinchenko deserves to start games. Once you see it, it’s kind of comical.
Let’s see whom plays this weekend and who is available for the return leg. One match at a time…
“whom” … Thanks, fat thumbs.
Tomi and Partey are clearly still not fit.
Just can’t take the bias out of EUFA certain teams with either bags of cash or establishment European pedigree always seem to get away with things.
On the other 94 minutes, a really good game with Bayern having bags of energy after doing nothing for weeks really pushing us.
Should be a different game over there with us looking to exploit them on the counter attacks and them trying to break us down.
Honestly what are these refs smoking??? Stonewall pen
We also got away with one.
A big one in hindsight.
That’s true! We were lucky with the Gabriel one, so can’t complain I guess.
Now that I have calmed down slightly I will say Bayern’s passing was far better than ours
Good result in the end. Thought our guys were a little nervous and not quite themselves. Despite the teams form you saw the difference in individual experience in the squads. They have taken some criticism recently but i thought it was Jesus and Zinchenkos experience that really showed and got us back into the game.
Can’t get over that Jesus assist, how does he have the awareness and cool headedness on this kind of occasion to run out of the path of one defender closing him from behind, then dribble towards another and beat him, and then somehow see Trossard’s run behind him within a milisecond after that and lay it perfectly? We have some brilliant players in this team but there are only two who I think go to the level of artists with their creativity at times, and that’s Odegaard and Gabriel Jesus.
I think Saka tried to buy that penalty and wish he had tried to go round keeper. Right decision I am afraid fair play to the ref.
Watch Neuer’s right leg. He makes sure he connects with Saka.
Also watch Neuers face right after. The most telling evidence of a pen is when you watch it in real time. Saka is at full tilt there is no way he gets around Neuer with being taken out. Slow motion replays can be deceiving.
FFS!!!! That’s a Penalty!
Evens. Bayern had a 100% pen when Gabriel handled Raya’s pass in our box!
A stupid moment/ loss of concentration from Gabriel, super lucky for Arsenal as it would have been 3-1 and game over!
Gabriel struggled tonight. He never settled.
In my opinion Jesus should have started this game, and Trossard should have been on start of the second half, or definitely 10 mins earlier than he was. Arteta was off it tonight, tactically got it all wrong. We could have lost that 3-1 very easily. Madrid would destroy us if we played like that. Still in with a slight chance, if we play like we did at the etihad and nick a goal. That was far from convincing though, and Bayern will be much better with their crowd behind them. So the players will need to step up. For… Read more »
Was at the game , sat behind the goal where Saka went down. Looked like a penalty. No replays- not seen it. Were we robbed?
Neuer moves towards and takes him out however saka hangs a leg out so that’s why var hasn’t overturned.
I don’t think he holds a leg out at all, Neuer knocks his leg out of his stride. If Neuer isn’t there, he plants his foot and shoots, simple as that.
If Bayern got it at the other end I would have had 0% complaints, a disgraceful decision. I can’t believe people think otherwise
I mean I think it was a pen. The guy just wanted to know what happened
Ah yeah I wasn’t contradicting your explanation, just can’t believe it wasn’t given.
The exact moment Bayern hoofed that ball clear, I thought “Bayern have nothing to them at the moment, we should win this comfortably” and then that bizarre tripartite mix-up with Raya, Gabriel and Kiwior. We did well to equalise but it really is such a disappointing result against a Bayern that have been in relative shambles. The performance was okay but just a couple of aberrations were fully punished (and a big let off with Bayern hitting the post towards the end, too). We’ll have to be much better next week. Saka was leg-dangling and pen-hunting. If Kane did that… Read more »
Fair assessment. Gabriel gets the ball. He is in control, Rays is too close, okay it’s bad positioning but by Gabriel a good decision not to pass to the keeper; he should have attempted to clear his line going as long as possible; Giving us a chance to react. No need to blame Raya
Not really blaming Raya, it’s just a weirrdmix-up by all three. A pass to Raya was too risky for Gabriel because of his proximity and angle. So he tries and actually pulls off a tricky pass to Kiwior, but Kiwior’s not really on the same wavelength and doesn’t anticipate the pass correctly and we lose possession in what was originally a completely non-threatening hoofed clearance from a Bayern on the ropes. It was honestly a bit freakish and they capitalised perfectly.
Everybody made a split second mistake starting with Raya.
Next week will be a different game. The main threat today seemed to be them breaking quickly on us. I suspect we’ll have a deeper set up next week and hopefully can manage that risk better. We can score in Germany, and hopefully shut them out !
Big learning curve for the boys. Now they know what Bayern are about without being beaten. It will put them in good stead for the second leg. We may have to set up to play on the counter. I’d start Gabriel Jesus: his dribbling and close control in tight spaces could be key. I’d start Tomiyasu on the left too.
The one big doubt that I had about this team, was its ability to thrive in chaos. I knew we could win 5-0 or 1-0, I knew we could have great control. But I had doubt in our ability to keep up when we can’t have control and the game starts going crazy (Like Real Madrid, Liverpool or Man City can). In a way, I feel great about this game. We lacked control, we made mistakes, but we showed that we can embrace chaos when needed. I’m so proud of this team. Away game without Alphonso Davies is gonna be… Read more »
You’ve got ice in your veins, Blogs, to write such a measured and well-reasoned post so soon after the game.
He was writing during the game. I believe that’s how it’s done.😀
It’s gonna be perfect when we go throught at Munich
Exuberance versus experience indeed. I hope we play a calmer game in the second leg
He writes it as the game goes along. I assume.
I’m glad we didn’t get beat but it is this Sunday’s game that is more important to me – time to win the league title!!!
A bit furious at Saka at the end there. He had the ball and an empty net, why go for contact when it was clearly avoidable?
Otherwise his overall game was beautiful
Having calmed down a bit, I can rationalise that now us playing shite and pressing the self destruct button ends in a 2-2 draw with Bayern. Before it ended in a 5-1. Our ceiling and floor has risen considerably.
Zinchenko, Ødegaard, Jesus were class. Fair play to Goretzka and Laimer, they put in one hell of a shift. In hindsight Kai should’ve played in midfield. These are the margins at this level. Mistakes are severely punished. We learn, we move. Bring on Villa.
Think that’s as bad and within ourselves as we’ve played for a while so hopefully that s it out of our system but we need more dynamic fleet footed players to try handle their class and counterattack . Rice or Partey at 6 , tomi or zincks LB , Kiwior was little left of field choice and hard to understand , man’s talented but not against speed merchants .anyways were still in it despite playing poorly and we had lady luck with the shot hitting post, the saka foul is just crazy bit will even itself out, our class will… Read more »
Bayern played to their potential. Arsenal did not.
If Arsenal play as they can, they can win this tie.
Also, I’m so fucking glad they’ve binned off the away goals rule. What utter shite that was for far too long.
I think the fact that most of the comments about the Saka incident are 50/50 likes and dislikes shows that it was not a penalty because us football fans usually live through rise coloured glasses. In real time I thought penalty but the reply shows it quite clearly being initiated by Saka and if Bayern had won a penalty like that we would have been livid. Also, They just showed the incident where we could have given a penalty away when raya throws the ball to Gabriel at a goal kick. I have been saying all season this is a… Read more »
Resetting the ball by handling it at goal kick restart was awful. I didn’t notice in the game, but the ref had whistled!! Clear penalty against us
Man I’ve just seen those clips. Ref was sensible not to give it (a game shouldn’t be decided over something so trivial and pointless) but he absolutely could’ve and it just takes one billy big-bollocks ref (van Persie red vs Barca for kicking the ball away, anyone?) to officiously blow his whistle and we’re fucked. That’s a dumb and pointless risk we’re taking with no real playing advantage and we should absolutely not do that in future.
I’ll never understand how fans fail to realizer how good a player Zinchenko is. You could see the level he took the game to once he came in. Also, I hope today’s game nullifies the ‘he can’t defend’ narrative.
Barely dribbled past today.
Nurse!