Arsenal rescued a draw against Bayern Munich in their Champions League quarter-final tie, but they did also throw away the chance to take a victory into the second leg.
Mikel Arteta’s side drew 2-2 at the Emirates, in a game in which they took an early lead but still found themselves trailing at half-time after gifting goals to Serge Gnabry and Harry Kane.
Leandro Trossard eventually rescued a draw after Arteta made some effective substitutions, and whilst the result is not the end of the world, it does feel like an opportunity missed, having played at home, as the form team, and without any Bayern fans in the stadium.
Arsenal’s defensive performance has now been criticised for their approach to the game, which perhaps did not respect the opposition in the Champions League properly.
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Arsenal criticised for not respecting Bayern Munich attackers in Champions League draw
Speaking on Gunnerblog on YouTube, journalist James McNicholas admitted that there was some naivety to Arsenal’s performance.
“If i’m being honest, I think we didn’t show enough respect to Bayern’s attacking players,” he stated.
“I think what happens in the Champions League that’s different maybe to the Premier League, is that if you make a single mistake at the back, you can be punished.
“Look at that frontline – Gnabry, Musiala, Kane and Sane. We took chances, we went 1 on 1, we pressed high and we left them opportunities on the break.
“They’re good enough to punish you, even if they’re having a bad season, even if they’re not in the best of form, they have the quality, and I don’t think we paid that frontline enough respect.
“It’s really well put together. You’ve got players with real pace who run in behind, you’ve got a forward in Harry Kane who is very intelligent, dropping deep and can play some lovely passes between the lines.
“It’s a good formula and we made a couple of lax errors at the back, and they absolutely took advantage.”
Did Arsenal underestimate Bayern Munich’s attacking firepower?
Bayern suffered back-to-back Bundesliga defeats in the build-up to the quarter-final clash, and are about to concede the title for the first time in over a decade.
However, Bayern have scored 80 goals in 28 Bundesliga games, ranking them as the top-scoring team in Europe’s top five leagues.
Their front three contained more pace than anything Arsenal have faced in the Premier League, and perhaps some of the players, and fans, underestimated the quality of Bayern’s attack, in a similar way to how Arsenal were not wary enough of Porto’s defensive organisation in the previous round.