Wednesday 13 March 2013

Arsenal Defiance Just Not Enough, Roque Sees Off 10-Man Porto

The quarter final line-up for this year's Champions League has been completed and, for the first time in 17-years, there's no British contingent. Arsenal were the final British to be knocked out of the competition, but they did show defiance to lose on away goals and preventing  Bayern Munich from scoring for the first time in over 40-matches. So Bayern join Real Madrid, PSG, Borussia Dortmund, Barcelona, Galatasaray, Juventus and also Malaga who beat 10-man Porto in the night's other tie.

Arsenal's starting line-up did look like Arsene Wenger had already wrote the tie off. But those that thought this would be proved very wrong and Arsenal's attempt at coming back from a 3-1 aggregate deficit began after just three minutes when Olivier Giroud poked home a low ball across the six yard box from Theo Walcott after just three minutes.

The early goal almost caused a massive shift within the ground. The Allianz stadium was unusually quiet and Bayern weren't sure whether they should sit back and protect their lead or go out and add to it. This really caused the game the be at a rather slow pace for much of it and the ball was in the midfield an awful lot.

Despite Arsenal looking seemingly comfortable on the ball, Bayern actually had more possession and even more shots than the Gunners. Perhaps the most disappointing part of the match was the fact that neither Manuel Neuer nor Lukasz Fabianski were really tested at any point of the match. The hope for Arsenal came four minutes from time when Laurent Koscielny headed home from a corner to level the tie up. But a lot of time wasting and a lack of any more attacking intent meant Bayern would on and progress on away goals. But Arsenal produced a very spirited display despite the overall defeat, however they can also take with them the fact they are the first English side to beat Bayern in Munich since Norwich in the 1993 UEFA Cup.

Porto travelled to Spain with a 1-0 advantage over Malaga and the second leg was really all about Porto defending what they already had. They managed to hold on for 43-minutes until Isco hit a superb shot in to the top corner to level the tie up, a result which would bring extra time.

Porto's task of holding off Malaga became even harder just four minutes in to the second half when Steven Defour was shown a second yellow card for a late tackle. But the away side still resisted the Spanish inquisition until 77-minutes when substitute Roque Santa Cruz headed Malaga in to the quarter finals of a tournament they will not compete in for at least four years after this season due to the new financial restrictions that UEFA have imposed.     

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