I did not know what to expect from this game, other than that it would be hard-fought. After some open play in the early minutes, it settled into a fast-paced affair but with Bayern having much more of the ball. That pattern continued into the 75th minute, when the breakthrough came. The goalkeepers were sharp and they had to be. Both made impressive saves, none better than Neuer's on a header from Walcott, though a diving Cech's elbow save on Lewandowski's short-range shot was perhaps its equal. Thus it was surprising that a goalkeeping error led to the winning goal. Neuer came out to deal with Cazorla's excellent free kick into the center of the penalty area, but was momentarily frozen by Koscielny's leap towards the ball. As sometimes happens, Koscielny didn't touch it and it also flew past Neuer, and hit the face of Olivier Giroud as he was falling to the ground. It may have brushed his hand on its way towards goal, but this was no handball, and after the ball bounced across the line it was correctly given. Bayern was not done, and there were several anxious moments, the worst featuring Lewandowski again. But at the death, the team that snatched a late goal was Arsenal. Bellerin, who was absolutely fantastic the entire night, nipped in to steal a pass, motored past the last defender, and crossed to a wide open Ozil, who hit the ball towards goal. Neuer clawed it out, but only after it had crossed the line with an inch or two to spare. Two-nil to the Arsenal!
This doesn't mean Arsenal is out of the woods, of course. Yes, winning the rest of our games would virtually assure going through, but we have games in Munich and Athens to negotiate. (Hey, isn't this the third time in recent years that our final group game is against Olympiakos away?) Assuming Bayern wins their games against the other two, Arsenal will still have to beat each of them. A point in Munich could be precious.
Credit where it's due here. First, the referee was astonishingly good. I don't remember a card other than Giroud's for barging into Neuer as he was about to release the ball he'd just collected. (Giroud did not remonstrate with the ref--yay!) The officials let the game flow and it was a great spectacle. The defenses were excellent, despite the wealth of attacking talent out there. It's tough to rate individuals in a game like this; there was enormous pressure put on the ball and both teams misplaced some passes, particularly Arsenal. Bayern completed a higher percentage of their passes, but this was mostly because Arsenal was making a lot of them from deep in their own half and they were as much clearances as passes. Arsenal finished with 30% possession, an unthinkable stat in the EPL.
But Wenger intended exactly that. He wanted to hit Bayern on set pieces and the counter, and this is exactly what happened. It's not often that he out-tactics the other manager, but he did it to van Gaal a couple weeks ago and he did it to Guardiola today. If I'm singling out anyone for special praise--and they were all superb today--t would have to be our fullbacks, who covered a lot of ground and made it very difficult for Bayern to do what they wanted to do. It seemed to me that Ozil and Alexis were given special attention by the German side; neither had any time to dwell on the ball. Consequently, both coughed it up repeatedly, Alexis twice in very dangerous positions. Yet both did their jobs on both sides of the ball.
The one negative from this magnificent victory, and it's a big one, is the hamstring injury to Ramsey. The guy was just getting his confidence back, doing a fabulous job in every game. He'll be out for a while I'm sure, and Chamberlain will get his chances to start. A minor disappointment for me was Walcott's finishing. He should have had at least one today. But a swarming defense, weak shooting, and Manuel "Spiderman" Neuer conspired to keep him off the scoresheet.
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