Former Manchester United and Bayern Munich star Owen Hargreaves has now backed Arsenal to do one thing in the second-leg against the German giants.
Arsenal and Bayern Munich are now all-square at the midway point in their Champions League quarter-final tie after they battled out a 2-2 draw at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday night.
Mikel Arteta will have mixed feelings about the performance that his side delivered in the first-leg. On the one hand, he will be delighted that the Gunners found a way back into the game after trailing for a significant period. However, he will also feel that his team should never have been in that position in the first place.
How Arsenal fought back against Bayern Munich
The Gunners started well on Tuesday. Arsenal were being roared on by a raucous Emirates Stadium crowd and drew first blood as Bukayo Saka picked out the bottom corner in the 12th minute.
The Gunners’ inexperience at this level then began to show, though. Arsenal were playing their first Champions League quarter-final fixture in 14 years and the scale of the occasion seemed to get to the players as they made a couple of uncharacteristically sloppy errors at the back.
Mistakes seldom go unpunished at this level, and so it was that the visitors were able to turn the game around before the break as Serge Gnabry nabbed a goal against his former club and Harry Kane converted from the penalty spot.
Arsenal fought back after the break as the substitutes, Gabriel Jesus and Leandro Trossard, combined to score an equaliser. Whilst it was the Belgian who found the back of the net, a huge amount of praise was heaped on Jesus for his eye-catching role in the goal.
The North London club might have had a chance to win it right at the death too, but Saka’s claim for a penalty was controversially waved away by the referee.
Can Arsenal beat Bayern Munich in the second-leg?
Arsenal will need to be far more assured in the second-leg of this tie if they are to progress to the semi-finals of the competition. One thing that they can take heart from after this game, though, is that they are capable of hurting Bayern Munich with their attacking play and that the damage they received was self-inflicted.
If the Gunners can cut out their mistakes and maintain their composure then they have what it takes to go through.
Owen Hargreaves certainly believes that Arsenal stand a good chance to getting the win they need at the Allianz Arena. Speaking on TNT Sports, the ex-Bayern Munich midfielder said, “they can go to Munich & win, easily.”
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