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Page 1The Bavarians are still alive
Page 2 Only Neuer can do that
Arsenal FC fans are considered to be very, very quiet. The English said “Highbury is library” about their old stadium Highbury. Because it was said to be as quiet there as in a library. In 2006 Arsenal moved into their new stadium, the Emirates Stadium, a similarly beautiful saying is not yet known, but people have often complained about the lack of atmosphere. On Tuesday evening you could completely forget about the library. It took off in North London.
Arsenal, this great traditional English club, has not been in a Champions League quarter-final for 14 years. Their opponents in this first leg, FC Bayern, had often humiliated them. Bayern had won the last three duels 5-1. But now Arsenal are top of the Premier League, while Bayern are not German champions for the first time in eleven years.
Arsenal fans had hope
The Arsenal fans could hope for revenge. And when it was 1-0 after 11 minutes, they hoped even more. The whole stadium stood, shouted “Go, Arsenal” and insulted the former players of city rivals Tottenham, Harry Kane and Eric Dier (“You’ll always be shit, Eric Dier, you’ll always be shit”).
Arsenal had obviously identified Bayern’s right defense with Dier on the inside and Alphonso Davies on the outside as a weak point. They attacked over there, defender Ben White kept storming along, which took the Munich team by surprise. Thomas Tuchel was just unpacking a piece of chewing gum when the score was 1-0. Because Bayern couldn’t clear the ball and everything generally happened too quickly. Kai Havertz passed to Bukayo Saka, who shot it into the far corner.
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Bayern reeled. Yet again. They were about to collapse, right? On Saturday they led 2-0 at 1. FC Heidenheim – and then lost 2-3. The experts discussed whether Tuchel could still be worn until the end of the season. In the past few weeks, the people of Munich have sometimes appeared quite indifferent and soulless. But against Arsenal they picked themselves up, first with luck and later with skill, and got a 2-2 draw that they can certainly live with well before the second leg. They still have every chance of saving their season in the Champions League. Tuchel and his team could still come together here.
Experience can save
Why did Bayern come back to this game? Maybe it actually has something to do with experience, which is often dismissed as a soft factor. Certainly wrongly, as the game proved. Mikel Arteta’s team has little of it in the Champions League, Jorginho and Havertz won it with Chelsea (2021, with Tuchel), but otherwise there is at most experience in the Europa or Conference League.
And Arsenal themselves brought Bayern back into this game. Maybe Bayern wouldn’t have recovered if Ben White hadn’t shot right at Manuel Neuer after a quarter of an hour alone in front of the goal. But White is just a defender. And Neuer saved his team when they were still overwhelmed.
His counterpart David Raya, on the other hand, ran out of the goal without a plan before the score was 1-1, causing confusion. The central defender Gabriel ran the long pass, but then played forward too imprecisely. And Declan Rice, the midfielder that Bayern really wanted before the season before Arsenal bought him for a reported €100 million, suddenly, for whatever reason, rushed towards Leon Goretzka instead of protecting himself. Goretzka simply sprinted past him. Goretzka can do it at full throttle. After he received the pass from Leroy Sané, he passed it across to Serge Gnabry, who was no longer in the reckoning due to his many injuries – but now he scored to make it 1-1.
“We gave them things that they should actually earn,” Arteta said at the press conference.
Arsenal FC fans are considered to be very, very quiet. The English said “Highbury is library” about their old stadium Highbury. Because it was said to be as quiet there as in a library. In 2006 Arsenal moved into their new stadium, the Emirates Stadium, a similarly beautiful saying is not yet known, but people have often complained about the lack of atmosphere. On Tuesday evening you could completely forget about the library. It took off in North London.
Arsenal, this great traditional English club, has not been in a Champions League quarter-final for 14 years. Their opponents in this first leg, FC Bayern, had often humiliated them. Bayern had won the last three duels 5-1. But now Arsenal are top of the Premier League, while Bayern are not German champions for the first time in eleven years.
