Big title dream lives on
Passionate FC Bayern wins respectable success at Arsenal
April 9, 2024, 10:54 p.m
FC Bayern is celebrating a small success in the Champions League: At Arsenal FC, coach Thomas Tuchel’s team fought for a draw in the quarter-final first leg and thus created a good starting position for the second leg in their own arena.
Bayern Munich have shown their best Champions League face and, despite all their problems, can continue to dream of the greatest possible triumph. Thomas Tuchel’s transformed, passionately fighting team somewhat surprisingly won a 2-2 (2-1) draw in the quarter-final first leg against Premier League leaders FC Arsenal and can hope for their first place in the semi-finals since the treble in 2020. In this form, even returning to Wembley for the final on June 1st no longer seems completely unrealistic.
Bukayo Saka (12th) gave Arsenal around national player Kai Havertz the lead. But Serge Gnabry (18th) and superstar Harry Kane (32nd, penalty kick) turned the tide with his seventh goal of the season in the Champions League. However, the Gunners equalized through joker Leandro Trossard (76th). The post then prevented Bayern from scoring the winning goal from substitute Kingsley Coman (90th). Goalscorer Gnabry had to be replaced with an injury, and Alphonso Davies (suspended) will certainly be missing from the second leg on April 17th in Munich. To do this, Bayern, who can only avoid their first titleless season since 2012 in the Champions League, can then count on their fans who have been locked out by UEFA in London.
Bavaria shows “intensity and dedication”
Before kick-off, The Clash hit “London Calling” was played, and the British capital is also a place of longing this year as the finale. The football temple of Wembley, where Bayern defeated Dortmund in 2013, is only 14 kilometers west of the Emirates Stadium. To get there, it takes “intensity and dedication,” said Tuchel. The Munich team showed all of this – with four new players compared to the embarrassment in Heidenheim: captain Manuel Neuer in goal, Matthijs de Ligt and Eric Dier in the center of defense and Leroy Sané for Thomas Müller. But the home fans had a completely different Bayern in mind: ex-Gunner Gnabry was greeted with applause, Kane and Dier had to listen to boos every time they touched the ball because of their past with city rivals Tottenham.
Arsenal turned up the heat at the start. After Havertz won the ball and Saka’s beautiful shot into the left corner of the goal, the score was 1-0. It was no coincidence that the goal conceded came from the left: Davies had massive problems there. Tuchel complained, Neuer prevented the score from making it 0-2 (16th) after Havertz passed to Ben White. But Bayern, said Arsenal striker Gabriel Jesus, are “still Bayern.” And when Tuchel’s preferred player, Declan Rice (“Holding Six”), exposed the center after a Gabriel bad pass, they struck coldly through Sané, Leon Goretzka and Gnabry, who tunneled through goalkeeper David Raya.
And of course Harry meets Kane
Tuchel took notes. He was able to record that Sane was stopped by a foul by William Saliba after artful Neuer play and his great solo – Kane casually converted from the spot to score his 15th goal against Arsenal. Tuchel showed his right fist. “Very disciplined, very aggressive,” expert Matthias Sammer praised the guests on Prime Video and raved about “difference player” Sane. Arsenal team manager Mikel Arteta opposed the winger Oleksandr Zinchenko at the restart.
Arsenal ran, but the record champions held off with a lot of skill and the “a little bit of luck” that Tuchel invoked. The often criticized block of four in the center defended a lot – once too little, but otherwise often enough. There was another excitement in the last minute of added time when Saka went down in the penalty area after contact with Neuer. The referee decided to continue playing. A very fortunate decision for the Munich team. Kane then spoke of a “50:50 decision. (…) That’s football.”