Bayern Munich vs Arsenal match report: Gunners on the brink of Champions League exit as Thomas Muller and Robert Lewandowski strike

Bayern Munich 5 Arsenal 1

Bayern Munich striker Robert Lewandowsi celebrates his goal

It has been a frequent protest of Arsène Wenger’s frustrated search for a European trophy – the one great regret of his English career – that the cruel misfortune of knockout football has a way of doing his side inequitable damage. Others who have known Arsenal from the inside have seen a different story. They cite the widening chasm between this club and the best as the reason why, 10 years next summer since the Champions League final against Barcelona in Paris, which they lost, they are as far away as ever from making an imprint on this competition.

Never was the force of that argument more keenly felt than last night, when a desperate scoreline flattered Wenger’s side and protected them against what could have been even greater depths of embarrassment. The quality of the German movement and vision put them on another plain, with a gulf in technical capability on the flanks being the means by which they scored with ease, time and again. There was a warning to all the English sides. This was a level of football that none can aspire to.

Arsenal now find themselves staring at the prospect of a first failure in 16 years to advance beyond a Champions League group stage, with the Olympiakos win over Dynamo Zagreb taking the future out of their hands. Arsenal require Bayern to beat the Greeks here, whilst they must beat Zagreb and then triumph by two goals in Athens.


 Thomas Muller strikes his first of the game
 (2015 Getty Images)

If there was a metaphor for Arsenal’s first-half evisceration then it was the sight of David Alaba, a full-back, harassing Santi Cazorla into handing over possession, cutting in from the right, sizing up his options, and striking a ball with swerve that soared out of Petr Cech’s reach into the top right-hand corner. The half-time dressing room called by then, and there was a heavy fatalism about Wenger’s players.

Defeat was etched across the movements of a side incapable of locating any kind of hold on the game, ceding possession to the waves of red as soon they had claimed it.

The fear had been for Mathieu Debuchy, who has suffered a catastrophic form crash, going armed with Joel Campbell for company against Douglas Costa, who inflicted terrors despite Bayern’s defeat at the Emirates two weeks ago. Pep Guardiola instead deployed Kingsley Coman, a French 19-year-old on loan from Juventus, down that particular flank and the net effect was pretty much the same.

As Coman cut in and threaded passes for diagonal runs it became very quickly clear this would be a very long night. Campbell made a very chancey challenge on Coman on the edge of the area, 15 minutes in – the kind of penalty claim which is often given – and he was booked for clattering the same player a little later. Arsenal threw more and more at the task of shoring up this weak flank and as they did so, Guardiola’s players queued up to enjoy the subsequent freedoms elsewhere on the pitch and said thank you very much.

Bayern just switched play for the first goal, the incredibly intelligent Thiago Alcantara clipping a ball across the area and Robert Lewandowski pirouetting backwards, watching it on to his head where he angled, with the talents of a geometry teacher, a header beyond Cech. Gabriel’s desperate concentration lapse played him onside.

There was more good fortune about the second goal – Coman’s blocked shot fell for Thomas Müller, who swivelled and deposited a shot into the turf which deflected in off Per Mertesacker’s shin – but it had been the least Wenger could have expected.

There was an initial 10-minute spell in which some hope prevailed in Wenger’s players. Mertesacker conformed to Guardiola’s allegations about him being a route one merchant by taking precisely 10 seconds to haul a ball up for Olivier Giroud. But an early Giroud pass for Campbell was way beyond his reach and the Costa Rican’s own attempt at offering something back in return was terribly weak.

It can be said that Francis Coquelin did his reputation no damage as he dug in for the fight but the Germans attacked in wave after wave and Cech’s first-half saves prevented something deeply embarrassing. But that was the sum total of the comforts.

The same overloading on Debuchy’s flank allowed Bayern their fourth. Alaba provided the overlap for Coman and crossed for Arjen Robben, who had been on the field for 39 seconds before he provided the finest of finishes.

It was some presence to have waiting in reserve. A look at what Wenger had in reserve provided the most graphic evidence of the gulf. For Arsenal, Jeff Reine-Adelaide, the untested French 17-year-old, and Alex Iwobi, one of the young players flayed at Sheffield Wednesday whom Wenger said afterwards were not good enough. There were no attacking options. To a point, it is a story about an Arsenal ravaged by injuries but when it comes to European nights in places like this, a side with intentions requires infinitely more.

Arsenal’s consolation goal was such an insignificant incursion on the course of the night that the German chant went on regardless, though it said enough about Giroud’s offering that the failings all around him were harder to bear. He took Alexis Sanchez’s cross on his chest, span around and volleyed home sweetly. It was the slightest blot on the home side’s onward progress.

It required a strong intervention from Nacho Monreal to prevent Robben rounding Cech for a fifth. Müller provided it instead, lurking to find space on the right-hand side of the area where he deposited the ball low beyond Cech, with Mertesacker giving desperate chase.

The players were away down the tunnel within seconds, out of sight of the visiting contingent who had urged them on with vigour. A night which will haunt Wenger for years and which will stalk Arsenal’s confidence and self-respect, even if they do manage to conjure an escape from this group.