Bayern crush Arsenal dreams
ARSENAL saw their Champions League hopes all-but extinguished by Bayern Munich as they were thrashed 5-1 at the Allianz Arena.
The Gunners have fallen at this stage in the last six years and now need a miracle at the Emirates Stadium to progress to the quarter-finals.
Arjen Robben had put Bayern ahead with a superb goal but Alexis Sanchez drew the visitors level with a well-taken finish after seeing a weak penalty saved.
Arsene Wenger then saw his team rattle their hosts only to be blown away courtesy of a Robert Lewandowski header and a Thiago brace in 10 second-half minutes before a late strike from substitute Thomas Muller added the gloss.
Wenger had opted to field David Ospina rather than Petr Cech in goal, but that decision made no impact on the opening goal as Robben moved inside unchallenged before bending a superb effort past Ospina.
Manuel Neuer made hard work of an Mesut Ozil free-kick, but the Germany goalkeeper was equal to Sanchez’s penalty after referee Milorad Mazic pointed to the spot having adjudged that Lewandowski had fouled Laurent Koscielny.
Although he missed the spot-kick, Sanchez recovered and managed to tuck away the equaliser.
The game and the tie hinged on an incident on 49 minutes when Koscielny over-stretched to make a clearance and was forced off, with Gabriel on in his place.
Arsenal were soon three goals behind as Lewandowski nodded home Philipp Lahm’s cross before flicking a pass into the path of Thiago, who slotted home coolly.
Thiago struck again before Muller came off the bench, and despite having only four minutes to make an impact, he did just that as he converted the fifth.