UEFA Champions League
The surprising news ahead of the game was the announcement that Arjen Robben was placed on the bench. A show of confidence on the part of Bayern coach Jupp Heynckes.
5' Arsenal are off to a strong start and do not look afraid to take the game to the visitors with Theo Walcott sending in a couple of crosses, but he could not find a colleague on the end of them.
7' GOAL! Bayern drawn first blood as Toni Kroos struck from just outside the area after Mario Mandzukic sent in a cross from the right.
9' The Arsenal support are being drowned out by the travelling Bavarian support who do the Poznan, buoyed by their team's blitz of a start.
15' Vermaelen becomes the first of many an Arsenal player to earn a yellow card. Bastian Schweinsteiger curls in a free-kick from the right but it goes harmlessly out for a goal kick.
18' The left side of defence is taking most of the beating for Arsenal with Laurent Koscielny unable to keep a close track on both Franck Ribery and Philipp Lahm. The duo are sending in regular crosses and the home defence can do little but clear for corners.
21' GOAL! Bayern's pressure pays off as they double their lead. The latest corner is header towards Wojciech Szczesny by Daniel van Buyten and the Polish keeper makes the block, but an off-balance Thomas Muller pops up to hammer the ball into the net!
22' Bacary Sagna loses his nerve after losing the ball and makes a nasty challenge on Kroos - yellow for the Frenchman!
24' The Gunners are beginning to lose the plot. Arteta is next to find his name in the referee's book after a dangerous sliding challenge.
33' A chance goes begging as Jack Wilshere's free-kick is chested down for Per Mertesacker, but the German's scorching shot from inside the box is admirably blocked.
36' Muller gets a booking after he barged in harshly. A bit of a strange decision, that.
37' Correction: It was Schweinsteiger who got a yellow card. He will miss the next match at the Allianz Arena as a result.
44' Mandzukic goes close! A cross from Lahm from the right reaches the striker, who jumps highest at the edge of the six-yard box to send a header towards goal. The ball whizzes past Szczesny's left-hand post.
HALF-TIME: The score reads 2-0 in Bayern's favour and they have certainly looked good value for the lead.
51' Bayern start the second half with as much vigor as in the first while Arsenal limit themselves to optimistic through-balls and ambitious challenges.
55' GOAL! Arsenal find themselves back into the game! Manuel Neuer inexplicably rushes off his line to claim a corner but his hesitation allows the ball to bounce past him and Podolski is on hand to head home. Game on!
58' Muller gets booked this time but Wilshere's subsequent free-kick from the left is properly taken care of by Neuer.
63' Robben comes in for Ribery and the Dutchman nearly releases Mandzukic through on goal a couple of minutes later. Luckily for the home fans, the Croat was offside.
68' Aaron Ramsey, who's made a number of questionable challenges, earns a booking and concedes a free-kick from 40 yards out. Schweinsteiger has a go but places it well over the bar.
72' Arsenal make a couple of changes with Olivier Giroud and Tomas Rosicky coming in for Podolski and Ramsey respectively. The Frenchman has a shot within a minute of his introduction but Neuer makes the block.
75' A corner for Bayern is taken by Robben and Luiz Gustavo, brought on a short while back for Kroos, misses the target.
77' GOAL! Arsenal 1-3 Bayern! Mandzukic finally gets a goal as he somehow bundles in Lahm's right-wing cross from the byline past Szczesny!
78' That strike turns out to be Mandzukic's last contribution as his namesake - Mario Gomez - is brought on for a like-for-like replacement.
82' A long-range shot by Gustavo is deflected by Gomez but Szczesny makes a block with a dive to his right. Gomez tries to hit it on the rebound from the left but scoops it over. Wilshere had earlier made a dangerous run into the box and fired a shot across goal with his left foot but Neuer was equal to the challenge.
89' Vermaelen earns a free-kick to the left of the penalty area after being brought down by Lahm just as he was looking to cut into the box. Cazorla swings one in and it's headed back out to Sagna, but his shot from distance is high and wide! The German picks up a booking for the foul.
92' Robben runs down the clock near the right corner flag to ensure Arsenal don't grab a second goal in added time.
FULL-TIME: Arsenal are handed a 3-1 humbling at the hands of an impressive Bayern outfit. The Gunners attackers simply could not find a way past the physically-imposing and positionally-excellent Bayern defenders. Only Jack Wilshere seemed to be able to keep a continuous run going, but Walcott failed to impress in the lone striker role.
The Gunners now need to score three goals at the Allianz Arena to have any hope of progressing to the quarter-finals
Porto claim slender lead in Malaga tie
Joao Moutinho's second-half goal earned Porto a narrow 1-0 lead to take to Spain for the second leg of their Champions League last-16 clash with Malaga.
The defeat was Malaga's first in their maiden Champions League campaign, but Manuel Pellegrini's men will be hopeful of turning things round at La Rosaleda, where they beat both AC Milan and Zenit St Petersburg in the group stages.
Two-time former European champions Porto will also be optimistic about their chances of going through to the quarter-finals, although they would have preferred a bigger advantage for the trip to Andalusia.
Vitor Pereira's hosts dominated the first half in terms of possession and territory, but created little to trouble visiting goalkeeper Willy Caballero.
The majority of Porto's efforts before the break were off-target, although Marat Izmailov did bring a diving save out of Caballero in the fourth minute.
Porto's next two chances saw Fernando and Silvestre Varela head Moutinho corners just wide before Caballero was called into action again on the half-hour mark to comfortable gather an optimistic Fernando shot.
At the other end Malaga only ventured deep into Porto territory sporadically as the respective defences - the tightest in the Portuguese and Spanish leagues this season - held the upper hand.
The home side would have been disappointed not to have worked Caballero more in the first period, but they came out strongly at the start of the second half and took just six minutes to fashion the best chance of the game so far.
Sandro sent over a cross from the left and the stretching Izmailov almost managed to turn it into the net, despite not getting a clean connection on his half-volley.
That was a major let-off for Malaga, but they were not so fortunate five minutes later as 1987 and 2004 champions Porto took the lead through Moutinho following more good work from Sandro.
The Brazilian did well to create space before picking out his team-mate's run into the box with an inch-perfect pass between the Malaga defence and goalkeeper Caballero, which the highly-rated Moutinho clinically side-footed home first time.
That proved to be the only goal of the match as defences continued to dominate during the closing stages, leaving things finely poised for the second leg.
UEFA Champions League
![UEFA Champions League]()
Reviewed by Unknown
on
18:47
Rating:
Post a Comment