joshjdss<\/a> | Flickr<\/figcaption><\/figure>\nFrom an Arsenal perspective, there were very few positives to take from back-to-back 5-1 hammerings at the hands of Bayern Munich. Things weren\u2019t going all that badly for the Gunners at half time in the first leg as the scores were level at 1-1 after Alexis Sanchez struck to cancel out Arjen Robben’s exceptional opener. But things fell apart for Ars\u00e8ne Wenger\u2019s men in the second period as Robert Lewandowski, Thiago Alcantara and sub Thomas Muller all scored (Alcantara twice) to leave Arsenal fans praying for a miracle in the second leg.<\/p>\n
As it turned out, there were no miracle-giving deities at the Emirates a couple of weeks later, and although Arsenal opened brightly and even went a goal up, once again it was a poor second half that cost Wenger\u2019s men. Laurent Koscielny, who went off injured before Bayern ran riot in the first leg, got sent off just before the Germans began scoring freely in the second half of the second leg. And the final result was the same: 5-1 to Bayern. At least the Gunners went on to win the FA Cup that season.<\/p>\n
Group Stage, 2015\/16 \u2013 Arsenal Victorious at Home\u2026 Appalling Away<\/h2>\n
Arsenal showed the kind of mettle they will need in this season\u2019s quarters when they overcame a very strong Bayern side 2-0 in October 2015 at the Emirates. Unlike on many occasions in Europe, Wenger\u2019s men played a patient, measured game and \u2013 despite giving up plenty of possession \u2013 restricted the Germans to six shots on target (Arsenal mustered eight).<\/p>\n
The breakthrough for the home side didn\u2019t come until late in the game, Olivier Giroud poking the ball into the net after 77 minutes. As Bayern pushed for an equaliser, Mesut Ozil added a second for the home side in injury time.<\/p>\n
It was, of course, a different story in the return fixture in Bavaria. Bayern would have qualified from the group without the win, but they were in no mood to go easy on their English opponents and dominated the game. With almost 70% possession and 23 attempts, 13 of which were on target, Arsenal were perhaps lucky to avoid a bigger defeat. As it was, the Gunners could only manage two shots on target, but at least scored one of them. The first of three consecutive 5-1 defeats at the hands of Bayern certainly rocked the Arsenal squad of the day.<\/p>\n
Round of 16, 2012\/13 \u2013 Arsenal Edged Out After Brave Display<\/h2>\n
If we go back a little further, in 2012\/13 the Gunners were so very close to getting the better of their German rivals. Unfortunately, they rather made a hash of things in the first leg at the Emirates, and early goals from Toni Kroos and Thomas Muller put the Germans in the box seat. Arsenal didn\u2019t give up and pulled one back through Lukas Podolski. But Mario Mandzukic’s goal looked to have put the tie to bed\u2026 at least until the Gunners turned up in spades in Bavaria.<\/p>\n
Against all expectations, they blasted out of the blocks in the second leg and a third-minute goal from Giroud had the away side (and fans) fired up and ready for the battle. For once the free-scoring Bayern were unable to find a way through Arsenal\u2019s defence and when Koscielny scored Arsenal\u2019s second with just a few minutes to go, the away fans dared to believe.<\/p>\n
Alas, despite the tie being level on 3-3 at the final whistle, the Germans went through on the away goal rule. Still, it showed Arsenal were only a whisker away from getting past the Germans, and if they approach the 2023\/24 quarter final with similar grit and belief, they have a very good chance of making it to the semis. And oh how nice it would be to see a certain Harry Kane looking miserable at the final whistle!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Arsenal edged past the Portuguese side Porto on penalties on 12th March, 2024 to make it through to the quarter final of the Champions League for the first time since the 2009\/10 season. With the draw made for the 2023\/24 quarters and semis, Mikel Arteta\u2019s men know what they have to do to make it … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":565,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_FSMCFIC_featured_image_caption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_nocaption":"","_FSMCFIC_featured_image_hide":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afcbetting.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afcbetting.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afcbetting.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afcbetting.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afcbetting.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=563"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.afcbetting.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":568,"href":"https:\/\/www.afcbetting.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/563\/revisions\/568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afcbetting.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.afcbetting.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afcbetting.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.afcbetting.co.uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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