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Men’s Football Arsenal’s season suffers blow with Champions League exit in Munich

Bayern Munich 1-0 Arsenal
(3-2 on agg)
Report by Layth Yousif in Munich

Arsenal endured another lacklustre European exit after a second half goal from Joshua Kimmich was enough to seal victory for Bayern and send them through to the last four of the Champions League. 

On another bitterly disappointing evening the Gunners were knocked out of European football's premier club tournament without a whimper in front of 75,000 fans - including 3,800 travelling Gooners who sang their hearts out high up in the gods throughout a frustrating 90 minutes. 

Kimmich's emphatic 63rd-minute header from Raphael Guerreiro's cross was enough to send the Germans through to the semi-finals, 3-2 on aggregate after the two teams had drawn 2-2 in London in the first leg.

In a tremendous atmosphere, preceded by a raucous pre-match pyro display, Manuel Neuer was the far busier of the two keepers in the first half. Dealing with an early effort from Gabi Martinelli, Martin Odegaard's shot on the half hour, along with another effort from Martinelli, as well as Kai Havertz's' header. While Ben White's drive flew over the woodwork, as Arsenal attempted to gain a foothold at this most precarious of places.

A banner was raised by Munich fans sending a message to Uefa: “We don’t like you…get out of our stadium,” – in reference to European football’s governing body banning visiting supporters at Arsenal last week.

Speaking of oligarchs, apparently Silent Stan Kroenke and heir apparent son Josh graced the stadium with their presence, presumably hoping to count the coffers that come with such glamorous progression in club football’s most lucrative tournament.

However, Arsenal faded in the second half, while Tuchel exhorted his team at the break to be bold - and were rewarded with a place in the last four where they will now face Real Madrid. 

Leaving Arsenal to ponder failing to reach the Champions League semi-finals since 2008-09 - with the stark truth is they simply did not look like doing so on a cold evening in deepest Bavaria. Even against a below par Munich side who had endured a poor domestic season and were without key players Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman because of injury.

Speaking after the match, Arteta said: "Very sad and disappointed with the final result. It was a tie of very small margins," adding: "We didn’t defend our box well at all in that action and we ended up throwing everything and trying everything, not having enough to score a goal and have an option to go through the tie."

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