Champions League quarter-finals: Despite Sané day – Bayern miss a win at Arsenal

As of: April 10, 2024 12:07 a.m

Thanks to the outstanding Leroy Sané, Bayern Munich has developed a good starting position for the second leg in the Champions League quarter-finals on Tuesday evening (April 9, 2024) at Arsenal FC. But a victory was definitely possible.

In the 2-2 (1-2) draw, which was lucky for the Londoners, Bukayo Saka (12′) had put the Gunners in the lead before Sané initiated the goals from Serge Gnabry (18′) and Harry Kane (32’/foul penalty). With a quarter of an hour to go, the Premier League leaders managed to equalize through Leandro Trossard.

“A big game for me. I’m very happy to have helped the team,” said Harry Kane after the final whistle on “Prime”. “We’ve taken a small step, but we have to be focused from game to game. It’s a good away result, hopefully we can make that clear at home. The dream of Wembley is alive.” Coach Thomas Tuchel wasn’t entirely satisfied: “I think we could have won.”

New returns and special reunions

At Bayern, captain Manuel Neuer, who recently had to take a break in the defeats against Dortmund and in Heidenheim due to a torn muscle fiber, reported fit again. It was also an evening with a special reunion: Arsenal striker Kai Havertz, who was in the starting line-up, won the Champions League with Chelsea with Tuchel in 2021. Ex-Tottenham stars Kane and Eric Dier returned to London – and were whistled mercilessly by the supporters of their former city rivals every time they touched the ball.

Live ticker FC Arsenal – FC Bayern arrow right quarter-finals arrow right

Bayern fans excluded

There were no whistles from the visitors’ corner that evening. Bayern fans were excluded due to a UEFA penalty following misbehavior by Munich supporters in the first leg of the round of 16 at Lazio.

And they missed a lot in the first half – especially a fast-paced and tactically very interesting football game. After Bayern controlled the ball for ten minutes, Arsenal made their first big statement on offense.

Saka leads the way – but White doesn’t follow suit

After Alphonso Davies was unable to clear a London attack consistently enough, Ben White sent his colleague Bukayo Saka perfectly into the open space. Saka then had far too much space in the penalty area, benefited from Dier’s passivity and circled the ball superbly into the far corner from a twelve-meter half-right position.

Shortly afterwards, the Gunners had a great chance to add the second goal: Neuer, however, defused White’s too-central finish with good positional play.

Sané is really turning up the heat

Bayern’s reaction: impressive. Instead of being irritated by the two serious defensive gaps, they counterattacked consistently and at top speed. In the 18th minute, after a bad pass from Gabriel, Sané initiated the attack with a great pass to Leon Goretzka, who just as intelligently passed it on to Serge Gnabry. Gnabry immediately finished and put the ball past Arsenal keeper David Raya to equalize.

Sané in particular really turned up the heat afterwards. After half an hour, he single-handedly got around half the Gunners defense and eventually drew Wiiliam Saliba’s foul. Despite the hostility from the stands, Kane sank the penalty with great confidence. Shortly afterwards, Sané was again too quick for the interior defense, which is so strong in the Premier League, but missed the right moment to finish and then had the ball taken from Martin Odegaard.

Bayern’s defense is becoming safer

In the second half, Gunners coach Mikel Arteta strengthened his team’s previously outrageous counterattack defense, but Bayern’s defense also now acted much more securely than in the opening quarter of an hour of the first half.

Both initially came at the expense of further big chances, but the very strong Goretzka and Konrad Laimer still had the chance to add the third goal with a little more precision after winning the ball well.

Tuchel with an amazing change

That’s exactly what Tuchel complained about with lots of gestures on the touchline, but a short time later he surprised us with an astonishing change. Sané, who had been outstanding until then, was the first Bayern player to leave the field in the 66th minute. Instead, Gnabry was allowed to continue, even though he was visibly running out of strength after the month-long injury break.

Bitter for the returnee: Four minutes after the Tuchel move with Sané, Gnabry grabbed the back of his thigh in pain – the next compulsory break is looming for the left winger, who was still hoping to take part in the European Championship.

Arsenal joker equalizes

Tuchel’s counterpart had more luck with his substitutions. Leandro Trossard came on in the 66th minute alongside Gabriel Jesus. Ten minutes later, the Brazilian crossed for the Belgian, Laimer and Joshua Kimmich were too far away from the action – Trossard gave Neuer no chance with a low shot from ten meters and scored almost out of nowhere to equalize 2-2.

Bayern had the best chance to decide this game in the 90th minute. But Kingsley Coman simply lacked luck: after great preparation from Jamal Musiala, the Frenchman hit the post with an artistic backheel trick.

The Munich team also had a moment of shock: Saka was suddenly free in front of Neuer in the 95th minute and fell after a clear contact with the keeper – but surprisingly, referee Glenn Nyberg did not whistle a penalty and was not corrected by the video assistant.

Second leg in eight days

While the Gunners are still fighting for the championship in the league, Bayern are only looking forward to the second leg: On April 17th, Arsenal FC will come to the Munich Arena for the big showdown.