Bayern Munich knocked Arsenal out of the Champions League with a hard-fought 1-0 win at the Allianz Arena. Relive the action with our Bayern Munich vs Arsenal stats page.
It has been a week to forget for Arsenal.
After a draw in the first leg of this quarter-final tie, they lost their position at the top of the Premier League by losing to Aston Villa at the weekend. And now, with a 1-0 defeat at Bayern Munich, Arsenal’s season will hinge on whether they can overhaul Manchester City to win the Premier League title.
This was the culmination of a tie pitting a veteran of this competition against a side who have barely featured in it in recent years. Bayern, giants of European football that they are, showed just how much pedigree they have in this competition with an assured rearguard performance.
Arsenal came into the game looking to book a place in their third ever Champions League semi-final, and their first since 2008-09. Since their most recent appearance in the last four of the competition, Bayern had been there on eight occasions. Now, make that nine.
Domestically, of course, it is Arsenal having much the better campaign. Their title chances might have taken a blow with Sunday’s defeat to Villa, but unlike Bayern, they are still in with a chance of winning their league. Bayer Leverkusen ended Bayern’s hopes of a 12th straight Bundesliga title at the weekend.
In the game’s early stages here, neither team wanted to attack too much and risk giving their opponents too much space to attack into. It made for a cagey start, with Bayern happy to let Arsenal have the ball – as they did at the Emirates last week – and little way through for the visitors. The opening 20 minutes of the game produced just three shots.
Two of those fell to Kane, who started brightly but his impact faded as the game went on. Bayern’s talisman had fewer touches than anyone else on the pitch in the first half (9) other than Arsenal goalkeeper David Raya (8).
Arsenal grew in confidence as they saw so much of the ball and kept it well, with four of their players ending the first half with 100% passing accuracy. Martin Ødegaard forced a decent save from Manuel Neuer in the Bayern goal, before the Arsenal captain laid on the best chance of the first period. His square ball into the box found Gabriel Martinelli 12 yards from goal, but the Brazilian could only place his effort straight at Neuer.
The first half ended with the two teams having produced a total of just 0.61 expected goals.
There appeared to be a little more intent from both sides right at the start of the second half. Within 64 seconds of the restart, Ødegaard had fired over the bar for Arsenal, and both Leon Goretzka and Raphaël Guerreiro had hit the woodwork for Bayern.
There was vast quality on show all over the pitch, but for much of the game they cancelled each other out. For the hosts, Jamal Musiala was knitting play together beautifully, but his final ball consistently let him down, while Ødegaard, Martinelli and Bukayo Saka carried a threat every time Arsenal went forward, but they struggled to bring centre-forward Kai Havertz into the game.
Just after the hour mark, though, Bayern made the crucial breakthrough. Guerreiro picked up a loose ball on the left and produced one of the game’s best moments of quality, chipping a cross into the six-yard box for the arriving Joshua Kimmich to power a header home. It was just Kimmich’s second goal of the season – the other one coming in a 5-1 defeat to Eintracht Frankfurt in December.
Mikel Arteta introduced Leandro Trossard and Gabriel Jesus – two players who had come off the bench to combine for Arsenal’s equaliser in the first leg – as Arsenal looked for a way back into the game. Chances continued to prove hard to come by, though, as Bayern shut up shop and did everything they could to see out the game.
It took until the 88th minute – by which time striker Eddie Nketiah had come on for Arsenal, and Bayern boss Thomas Tuchel had thrown on centre-backs Kim Min-Jae and Dayot Upemecano – for Arsenal to muster their second shot of the second half. That again came from Ødegaard, some 42 minutes after his side’s previous effort.
Arsenal piled on the pressure in the game’s closing stages and there was very nearly one last huge chance. Saka was fouled on the edge of the box and Ødegaard slipped Ben White in with a smart, quickly-taken free-kick, but the defender couldn’t get his shot off.
That was to be the final action, as Bayern Munich kept up their hopes of winning the Champions League with the hardest of hard-fought wins.
For Arsenal, there is even now more pressure on their trip to Wolves on Saturday. They can’t let this week from hell derail their entire season.
Bayern Munich vs Arsenal Stats: Post-Match Facts
- Bayern Munich have reached their 13th Champions League semi-final, with only Real Madrid reaching more.
- Arsenal have lost eight Champions League matches against Bayern Munich, two more than they’ve lost against any other side.
- Arsenal have lost consecutive matches in all competitions without scoring in either match for the first time since May 2023 (vs Brighton and Nottingham Forest).
- Five of Joshua Kimmich’s last seven Champions League goals for Bayern Munich have come in the knockout stages (two in semi-finals, three in quarter-finals). Tonight’s goal was only his second in his last 32 appearances in the competition, his other also coming against an English side in a home quarter-final tie (April 2023 vs Man City).
- In the second half of this match, Arsenal managed just three shots with none of those on target, accumulating an excepted goals total of just 0.15.
- Bayern Munich have scored 30 UEFA Champions League goals against Arsenal – only Real Madrid vs Bayern Munich (34) and Bayern themselves vs Barcelona (33) have netted more against a single opponent.
- Bayern Munich have won 20 of their last 24 home UEFA Champions League matches (D3 L1), keeping 13 clean sheets in this run.
- Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer made his 23rd UEFA Champions League start in quarter-final matches, the outright most of any player.
Bayern Munich vs Arsenal Stats Centre
Our live Opta match centre delivers you all the Bayern Munich vs Arsenal stats from Wednesday’s Champions League game at the Allianz Arena.
The match centre below includes team and player stats, expected goals data, passing networks, an Opta chalkboard and more. It gives you everything you need to do your own post-match analysis.
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