Arsenal's Champion League hopes are looking dashed after they lost to Bayern Munich by 5-1 in the first leg of their last-16 stage. They need some kind of turnaround on March 7, or they are about to exit from the last 16 once again.
Arsenal had leveled at the half time thanks to Alexis Sanchez who scored after his initial penalty was saved. But in the second half, Arsenal had a humiliating collapse after the injury to Laurent Koscielny. Bayern Munich was on fire for a 10-minute period in which Robert Lewandowski headed one before Thiago Alcantara scored twice. To add more salt to the wound on Arsenal substitute Thomas Muller scored the fifth goal as reported by BBC.
The Premier League side will exit the tournament at the early stage for a seventh straight season. Arsenal's manager Wenger had many questions to answer. "It's difficult to explain," Frenchman Wenger told BT Sport. "Just before half-time we had two good chances to score. We came back and played well. In the second half, we lost Koscielny very quickly - he came off at, 1-1 and finally, we collapsed. Bayern is a better team than us as well. The third goal was a killer for our players because after that we had no response."
According to Wenger, the real problems for the Arsenal started after the third goal. Wenger was looking at this game to give himself some kind of hope about the progress of Arsenal but what a complete let down it was for them. It also raises many questions about the future of Wenger too as reported by mirror.
This was their fourth meeting in previous five seasons and Arsenal has lost three of their last knock-out games. "We lost our organization and we looked mentally jaded and vulnerable from that moment onwards. The last 25 minutes was a nightmare for us" said the Arsenal Manager and further when asked whether Arsenal needs a "miracles" now to go ahead to which he replied, "Of Course."
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