Bayern Munich limp out of Champions League at Arsenal

In the first three months of 2023, Bayern Munich had conceded just one goal. But on a rainy night in north London, it took just 26 minutes for Arsenal to score twice as many, and a further 64 to send the German side out of the Champions League with the merest of whimpers.

Before Wednesday's game, Arsenal coach Jonas Eideval had made a point of talking up Bayern's defensive strengths. "They work very hard together collectively,” he said. "There are a lot of times when you get into the penalty area and they block your shots and make things really tight around you.”

They may have done so in the first leg, and in their crucial win over Wolfsburg on Saturday, but this was a brutal lesson from an Arsenal side missing their two best attacking players in Vivianne Miedema and Beth Mead. The Women's Super League (WSL) side also lost their captain, Kim Little, early in the piece, forcing England skipper Leah Williamson in to midfield.

It was from there that Williamson played a crucial part in a sublime 19th-minute opener, her backheel paving the way for Frida Maanum to whip a sensational effort off the woodwork and in. Stina Blackstenius doubled the lead seven minutes later. It wouldn't get any better for Bayern.

"We just weren't good enough in the 1v1s,” Bayern's Icelandic defender Glodis Perla Viggosdottir told DW after the game. "It was really women against girls in the tackles and I think that's why we lost the game. We felt overwhelmed, they had so many attacks we could've lost 6-0 and in total over the two games they totally deserve to be through to the next round. They were very good.”

Bayern go from invincible to impotent

Bayern had looked invincible of late, a run of 14 consecutive wins meaning confidence could not have been higher. So how to explain an opening period where they were second best in every area? Where their strengths — a hardworking and technically sound midfield three and two experienced, intelligent center backs —  crumbled so feebly.

"It's about how you start the game. Whether you win or lose your first tackles,” Viggosdottir offered. "The confidence was a big problem and when they pressed us on the left we couldn't find the solutions. I think those games are often decided in the 1v1s and they just put everything in every tackle [and we didn't].”

Though his center back could offer some analysis in the aftermath, Bayern coach Alexander Straus could only flail in frustration during that devastating first half. The Norwegian threw his arms out, called his players in at any opportunity and eventually resorted to shrugging his shoulders and slumping back to the bench.

If Straus had anything to work with at the break, it was that his side were still, somehow, alive in the tie with Blackstenius among those who could've put Arsenal out of sight. He got a response of sorts after the break. That midfield three of Georgia Stanway, Sarah Zadrazil and Lina Magull wrestled the second half on to a more even keel, Saki Kumagai and Viggosdottir looked a little happier coping with Blackstenius and Caitlin Foord.

But, in truth, it was never much more than a foothold, with their former goalkeeper Manuela Zinsberger never tested in the Arsenal goal. At the other end, Caitlin Foord spurned a glorious chance to put the game to bed. Still Bayern somehow clung to hope, though it proved useless without conviction.

Bayern struggle in big games

With minutes remaining, Straus withdrew both Lina Magull and Lea Schüller – hooking two such dominant figures in his side an admission of the paucity of Bayern's efforts. Stanway's wild lunge in injury time added a measure of pointless frustration. She wasn't the only one feeling it.

"We have to go all in on the league now and we have to recover from this game. Of course it's hard because it's a bad feeling,” Viggosdottir concluded. "We've never won against a really, really good team in the Champions League — whether it's Arsenal, Paris Saint-Germain or Barcelona. It really annoys me because that should be the next step, to handle that pressure. We're still a young team but that's something that we have to learn.”

Having proved so much with the first leg win against Arsenal and victory against Wolfsburg in Bavaria at the weekend, Bayern undid plenty of that on Wednesday night, leaving old questions still open. The test now is to make sure that a night on the ropes in London doesn't leave them on the canvas in the Bundesliga title race.

Edited by Kalika Mehta