Champions League Round of 16 – leg 2
Bayern Munich 1-1 Arsenal (3-1 on aggregate)
The wall was too high for the Gunners who fought in Munich but were unable to pass the Germans. The home loss 2-0 was obviously a burden too heavy to carry on to the next round. Arsenal is out once again at the last 16 stage of the Champions League…
Wenger speaks after the game:
on his assessment of the game…
We played a 1-1 tonight. I feel we had to defend a lot in the first half but we knew that being in the game at half-time we had a good chance to win the game. I believe that in the second half the opportunities were there but overall over the two games I feel that what made the difference is the decision to send our goalkeeper off in the first game. We played a 1-1 tonight and that decision had a huge impact. It was on the same player who got a penalty again tonight and that’s the regret we have. Spirit wise we had everything until the end. Good luck to Bayern, they are a good side but I think they are this season more vulnerable than last year.
on Mesut Ozil…
He has a hamstring problem that looks quite serious.
on how long he will be out for…
I don’t know.
on whether Ozil will miss the Spurs game…
For sure he’s out. We have to make a scan tomorrow to see how bad it is but he’s out for at least a few weeks. I hope it’s not too bad.
on the team’s defining tonight…
Our defending, our spirit was good. The frustration we had was the last 20 minutes I felt that Bayern was very vulnerable defensively and that we didn’t take advantage of that. We always missed the first pass but I felt the situations were there where we could have made more of it. At the end of the day we never got them really under pressure. Even at 1-1 you could see they became suddenly nervous but because we never managed to make it 2-1, of course you could not really see how they would have responded. They are a good team, they are a great side with great players. They played well but we still have regrets over the two games.
on another last 16 exit…
When you go out in the last 16 you are right, it doesn’t get closer. The regret we have is now in the last five years we played twice Barcelona, twice Bayern and every time when these teams are at the top of their game. I must say in the last two years it was at home that we were done very harsh because away from home you look at our record in Germany we have not lost for a long time. But it’s at home that we were caught. I think especially this season, the decision to send our goalkeeper off at home was the big part in that tie.
on Podolski’s goal being a foul…
It looked to me a foul yes.
on Ryo…
He was not eligible because he was not qualified to play in the Champions League because I wanted to give him out on loan so we took him out of the list and Uefa informed us today that he is not qualified. Because he was on the bench on Sunday, naturally he was with us but honestly that had no impact on tonight’s result.
on taking a lot of heart from the performance…
I have to congratulate the players for the heart and the effort they put in tonight. They have been absolutely outstanding on that front. We wanted to come out of that tie tonight qualified and with pride. We did the second part, not the first part.
on Szczesny’s red card in the first leg…
I felt it was not a red card, it’s as simple as that. Any foul in the box is then a red card. Even Uefa has come out and said that they have to re-think that problem. First of all for me it was not a goalscoring opportunity because if Szczesny is really assured he can get a foul against him as well for a high foot of Robben. This situation can be analysed in both ways where you can give a foul against Robben for his foot being too high. But if you look well [at it] again when the ball goes after the control you will see that he never had a goal chance because the ball was in the feet of Sagna so it was never, never a goalscoring opportunity.
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