The Arsenal lost a tight European tie by a single goal to the mighty Bayern Munich. The opposition played well and used all the experience that they had in such abundance compared to our young team to get the result they needed with a well-judged performance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We lost fair and square, and have little time to lick our wounds before we are thrown to the Wolves, so to speak.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I watched the game in the pub with my old man and I should say at the outset of this report that my experience of the match was coloured by the three young lads sitting behind me, who notionally supported Arsenal but spent the entire game abusing our players, the manager and swearing vociferously at pretty much every on-field action.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Against such a backdrop I found myself even calmer and more measured than usual, if only as a reaction against the petulance, entitlement and, frankly, idiocy going on behind me. No-one has a God-given right to win football matches, and if you hate watching the team and lose your shit when we lose, then you might wanna do something else with your time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Personally, I reckon there is a clue in the word \u2018supporter\u2019, but I\u2019m younger than many in the bar and I was still twice the age of these lads, so perhaps the younger generations show their allegiances in ways I just don\u2019t recognise.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
So, to the match itself. The first half was excellent, at least from my perspective. We had a little more of the ball, stroked it around well and applied some pressure, without committing enough men to attacks that we created many clear chances. This also meant that we were rarely caught out at the back. We went in 0-0 and George Graham would have been chuffed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
One long ball went over Tomi\u2019s head to Sane, but Gabriel blocked his cross from the byline. Apart from that, we kept him fairly quiet all game. I assume most of those in the bar, who had been advocating the Japan international\u2019s selection at left-back in the first game as well as this one, were fairly happy with what they saw. Arteta knows his players\u2019 fitness better than we do, but it was a shame he wasn\u2019t deemed ready to start at the Emirates too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Rice began at left 8, but gradually drifted more centrally. With Tomi inverting too, they did a decent job swapping about to fill the midfield and cover the left flank between them. Jorginho was a calm and classy presence on the ball, but Bayern pressured him enough that he couldn\u2019t find a telling moment. Rice is quality and we all love him, but tonight we needed the vertical passing of a Partey. Our number 41 does not find spaces between the lines at this level, and he can\u2019t always drive past men either. Going forwards, we need him to find Odegaard quicker and let the captain do his stuff.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We pressed sensibly and in waves, sometimes dropping back and sometimes going for them. We won a couple of possessions this way, but a few times our final ball was a bit off. Neuer is also very good with his feet, which helped Bayern out of a couple of tight spots.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Bayern forced some corners and we had to be switched on to defend them, which our centre backs did well, although Raya was not commanding his box the way Neuer was. He did make a couple of good saves though, even if they were ones he would expect to make. We had some half chances, Odegaard having a couple of shots blocked or skied over the bar – he was little hesitant to shoot from the edge of the box with the half yard of space which was all a switched on Bayern would allow him. Our best chance fell to Martinelli who hit it with his left insole straight at Neuer. Would he have been better served to sweep it with his right? We will never know.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ref was good. He made a couple of marginal calls I disagreed with and seemed to give Kane more than his share of decisions against our CBs. Late in the second half he failed to give us a corner we really needed despite Odegaard\u2019s shot both deflecting of a defender and then being palmed behind by Neuer. But he was generally excellent, using his cards sensibly and avoiding any major talking points. I\u2019d be very happy if we were reffed this well every week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We got a warning right after half-time as the Germans immediately upped their tempo and the dangerous Goretzka headed the ball against the bar. The follow up also drilled into the outside of the post. We would have to watch their aerial threat, as Gabriel and Saliba could not mark all of the men who began making runs into the space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The game began to open up and Bayern were slightly on top, Musiala getting more involved, but Kane was quiet and I was perfectly happy when the clock passed the hour mark and there was still no score. As I said to my dad, just don\u2019t concede and take the game as deep as possible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Except three minutes later we conceded. They got to the byline and crossed high. Raya got a hand to it but it stayed in and they picked it up on our left. The ball came in (from memory, between our CBs) and Martinelli had let Kimmich go at the last moment to power in an excellent header. I thought Raya showed again tonight that he is not a keeper anyone will win the Champions League with, even if he is a good keeper. However, there was nothing he could do about the header once we\u2019d let Kimmich free to connect to the cross. It was a moment of quality that went on to decide the tie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Arteta immediately brought on Trossard and Jesus for Martinelli and Jorginho. Good subs, but they didn\u2019t make enough difference. A fit Partey would have been huge for us tonight, we needed his skillset badly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We had a few freekicks and a couple of corners. Nicholas Jover gets a lot of plaudits for his routines in the league, but in the CL we rarely get near the ball before the ref blows his whistle for a foul. I do think a lot of these are soft, but they keep getting given and we don\u2019t change our tactics and that is on us. A series of genuinely threatening set-pieces would have put Bayern under pressure, but as it was, they got off with a free kick of their own every time. Towards the end, Rice sprayed a free kick out to Trossard who controlled it poorly and gave away a foul without getting a cross in, even though everyone was up for it. Again, it is the sort of fine margin that a more experienced side (like Bayern) would be on the right side of.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We brought on Eddie for Tomi, and I doubt any of us felt it was likely to lead to a goal. Still, hope springs eternal, and the swapping of Sane for Upamecano showed that Tuchel was willing to sit deep and see it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I had felt, with fifteen minutes to go, that there would be one more chance in the game for us, but we didn\u2019t manage to fashion it. In the dying seconds we had a freekick in a great position that we chose to take quickly. It could have been a masterstroke. As it was, we were lucky to get a corner, which we were given time to take. But, personally, I\u2019d have preferred to take our time with the freekick. It is all moot now as Saka, who was well marshalled all game, failed to beat the first man with a disappointing last Arsenal kick of the tie.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The ref blew up. We were out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the dust settles, I am sure we will all have our own opinions on how bad a loss this was, or how good a chance we missed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For me, I think we have progressed so rapidly in the league that our European expectations are far higher than they really should be. We have so little experience in the Champions League, and that was the one quality where Bayern really had us beat tonight. We still came mighty close and gave a good account of ourselves in a tie we will learn a lot from. I think the quarterfinals were about par for us this year, so I\u2019m not too disappointed to go out at this stage, especially as I trust us to be wilier and tougher next year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Not everyone agreed, but I thought we were denied a nailed-on penalty in the first leg, and that might have changed the dynamics of the tie significantly. It is tight when you get to this stage, and everyone needs a little luck, no matter how good they are. We didn\u2019t seem to get much this year.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We will be back next year and in a far better position to put in a challenge. For now, we focus on the league, and we make sure our boys know how much we support them. They are having a magnificent season, the league is still to play for, and the club needs all cannons pointing outwards for six more huge matches.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Victoria Concordia Crescit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Until next time \u2018holics.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Arsenal lost a tight European tie by a single goal to the mighty Bayern Munich. The opposition played well and used all the experience that they had in such abundance compared to our young team to get the result they needed with a well-judged performance. We lost fair and square, and have little time […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9473"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=9473"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9473\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":9476,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9473\/revisions\/9476"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=9473"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=9473"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.goonerholicsforever.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=9473"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}