Mission Impossible?

Wednesday 13^th March, Arsenal visit the Allianz arena for the second leg of their champions league tie with Bayern Munich. The first leg saw Bayern win 3-1 at the Emirates in London, leaving Arsenal with it all to do. They would need a win by three goals at least to see them get through to the quarter-finals.

The odds were even more stacked against Arsenal with Podolski, Wilshere, and Szczesny ruled out and Vermaelen benched for the tie. This meant second choice keeper Fabianski would have to step up alongside youngsters Kieran Gibbs returning from injury and Carl Jenkinson.

This worry however was almost completely extinguished straight away when Theo Walcott received the ball on the edge of the box and fed it into Giroud’s feet for him to drill into the top of the goal. With just enough time to get comfortable I was jumping up again as Arsenal went ahead 1-0.

Following this Bayern looked more dominant with some great chances, one of those being a through ball from Robben into the box collected by Fabianski from Muller’s feet.

Fabianski continued in this manner making some fantastic stops to keep Arsenal in the contest. Unfortunately his attackers were letting him down as they were not looking like they were going to get a goal at any point with sluggish and disjointed attacks.

By the thirty minute mark the pace of the match had completely slowed down, so much so I was finding my twitter feed more interesting than the game. Neither team particularly looking like producing a goal. The majority of possession was held in the middle third and attacks were few and far between.

Half time and Arsenal were definitely the more confident side of the two. Their early goal ensuring they were in control of the game. Despite Bayern being able to go through leaving the score like this, they looked like half the team that came out and got three away goals at the Emirates two weeks before. They were slower, significantly less effective with possession, and overall more lazy. Arsenal looking more up for it could be down to the fact they had a ten day rest before this match or they wanted it more than Bayern.

Second half saw Bayern firing in shots from all over. They dominated possession and didn’t give Arsenal a chance with the ball. These attacks gave Arsene all the convincing he needed to make some subs. Bringing Gervinho and Oxlade-Chamberlain on for Walcott and Ramsey.

Gervinho looked like the strong link of the substitutions making a huge impact almost immediately, doing a nice give and go with Cazorla, turning brilliantly and just skimming the post with his shot.

You could then tell how aggravated the Arsenal team were getting with Giroud, Mertesacker, and Cazorla being booked within ten minutes of each other.

Arsenal left it late before making another impact, with an out swinging corner from Santi Cazorla headed in by Laurent Koscielny in the 84^th minute. This gave Arsenal fans some hope, could they do the impossible and get through to the next stage?

But any chances of going through were vanquished when Robben took to the corner and spent the somewhat harsh, mere three minutes extra time at the corner with short throw-ins.

The game finished 2-0 to Arsenal, despite statistically Bayern were the better team and the stats were a fair reflection, Arsenal went out on a high and although they missed out on the chance for a trophy due to Bayern’s away goals, they should be proud of their effort and carry this confidence through to the rest of the season. Hopefully they can manage to overtake Spurs and or Chelsea and secure a champions league spot for the 17^th year running under Arsene Wenger.