Arsenal 2-0 Bayern Munich: Full match report

Bayern Munich had 70% of possession, played about 4 times the amount of passes that Arsenal had, and Douglas Costa burned all of Héctor Bellerín, Francis Coquelin and Laurent Koscielny at least once. And yet, Arsenal held on, led by the superb Per Mertesacker and Petr Cech, and sparked new life into their Champions League campaign, beating Bayern 2-0.

Bayern set the tempo of the match early: incessant control and pressing, and with Arsenal allowing Xabi Alonso the freedom of Islington, and Santi Cazorla and Francis Coquelin not very adept at tracking midfield runners, Alonso was easily able to play passes between the lines for Thiago, Thomas Müller and Arturo Vidal. It was Arsenal, though, who had the first chance: Alexis's pass squirmed through to Mesut Özil, and the German's right footed shot was pushed away by the strong right hand of Neuer.

Soon after, Bayern had their best chance of the first half: Müller and Thiago played a wonderful one-two, but, with only Cech in front of him, Thiago hit it straight at the Arsenal keeper, who parried the shot for a corner.

Arsenal were under pressure for much of the first half, and were rarely able to play in Bayern's half of the pitch. When the two fullbacks were able to get forward, though, Arsenal were able to create chances, with Ramsey and Alexis combining with Özil, giving Arsenal possession higher up the pitch. From a corner, Alexis should've scored, but his shot went about 25 yards over the crossbar. And then Neuer made an absolutely superb save: Monreal's cross found the head of Walcott, who headed at point blank range. From behind the goal, Neuer was able to stick out a strong hand, and deny Walcott. It was a wonderful save, but also a bad miss.

The second half followed much of the same pattern as the first; yet, Arsenal took the lead. From a free kick, Neuer changed to a one-man tribute act for David Ospina, and completely missed Cazorla's flighted cross, with the ball hitting some part of Olivier Giroud's face and/or hand and trickled over the line.

Arsenal made their final change (Oxlade-Chamberlain replaced Ramsey, who did his hamstring) with Gibbs replacing the careless Alexis Sánchez. Bayern still had chances--Cech made a wonderful save from Lewandowski, and Koscielny did superbly to deny him the chance to shoot, before Arsenal settled the match in extra time. Bellerín stormed in to win the ball back, charged forward and then crossed for Özil, who sidefooted towards goal. It looked as if Neuer had made another unbelieveable save, but this time the ball had crossed the line.

GOALS

1-0 Giroud 77'
2-0 Özil 93'