Thursday 14 March 2013

Another Glorious Exit

After the 2-1 North London derby defeat at The Lane last Sunday, nobody in the right mind would predict Arsenal will do the impossible at The Allianz Arena against Bundesliga leaders, Bayern Munich.

Trailing 3-1 from the dismal performance in the first leg at The Emirates, we needed to win by three goals and not conceding any, a tall order for a side that has not kept a clean sheet in the last four matches.

Without the injured Jack Wilshere the tie looked lost. When Arsene Wenger announced that he will start with Lukasz Fabianski in goal and dropping his captain, Thomas Vermaelen to the bench I thought it was to give the returning Pole some match practice.


But when Olivier Giroud finished off a good counter-attack with the ball in the roof of the net, I dared to hope a little higher. However, we seemed to lost the momentum as the home side dominated proceeding for quite some time with Arjen Robben tormenting the Arsenal defence time and time again.

However, Fabianski stood tall in his first appearance for The Gunners in 2013  and kept us in the match with a series of fine saves.

I did not dare to hope anymore as time ticked away in Bayern's favour. However five minutes from the end Laurent Koscielny pushed me to dream of a memorable comeback with a looping header that crept past Manuel Neuer.

The aggregate was tied at 3-3 but we still losing on away goals rule. Just one more goal and we would be through to the last eight. However, just like against AC Milan last season; the one more goal did not come. We paid the price for the horrible display at home in the first leg.


Still, a win is still a win and winning at Bayern Munich will lift the morale of the boys and could be the launching pad they need to get into the Champions' League spot.


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