It was men against boys really. Arsenal put in an admirable performance, but Bayern Munich were the far superior side when it came down to effectiveness and quality as the home side crashed to a 3-1 defeat at the Emirates in the first leg of the last 16 of the Champions League.
Bayern were not really at their best, but that was still more than good enough against the Gunners, with Toni Kroos, Thomas Muller and Mario Mandzukic scoring the goals for the away side. Former Bayern man Lukas Podolski got the lone goal for Arsenal, in a tie, which effectively ended with the first leg.
In the other game of the day Porto took a slender 1-0 advantage in the first leg against Malaga, with Joao Moutinho scoring for the home side.
At the Emirates, Arsenal began fairly well, with Santi Cazorla finding plenty of space on the right, but failing to find the right ball.
The Gunners enjoyed much more possession than was expected, however when it came to the final product, they were found seriously wanting.
Bayern, on the other hand, were clinical - looking dangerous going forward and threatening to score a goal with almost every attack.
It did not take too long for the German machine to click into gear and find the opener -- just seven minutes. Thomas Muller found space on the right to cross, and his seemingly mishit delivery found Kroos on the edge of the box, who struck a sweet half-volley into the back of the net, leaving goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny with absolutely no chance.
Arsenal again had plenty of possession -- there was plenty of triangles, and passes from in to out, but absolutely no threat to the Bayern defense, which has been one of the meanest, if not the meanest, in Europe this season. Truth be told, Arsenal were just being schooled by a team far far above them in terms of quality, with Bayern knowing exactly what it takes to score goals against a side with fragile confidence.
In the 21st minute, Bayern went one step closer into the quarterfinals. A corner to the near post was headed by Daniel Van Buyten towards the goal with Szczesny only managing to parry it towards Muller, who made no mistake in sticking it in to make it 2-0.
The Gunners were so frustrated and almost naïve that, three of their players - Thomas Vermaelen, Bacary Sagna and Mikel Arteta received yellow cards with barely a half an hour gone in the game. However, also getting a yellow card was Bastian Schweinsteiger, which rules him out of the second leg.
Cazorla was disappointing, giving the ball away on too many occasions, while Theo Walcott, playing up front, just did not do enough with the ball at his feet. Lukas Podolski was invisible as a force going forward, with only Aaron Ramsey and Jack Wilshere showing any signs of life.
But, even those trademark Wilshere bursting runs through the middle were few and far between, with Bayern as comfortable as they could have possibly imagined in the first 45, as Manuel Neuer was not forced into making a single save.
It could and probably should have been 3-0 just before halftime as Philipp Lahm, given eons of space on the right, found a cross for Mario Mandzukic, inexplicably left all alone in the box, to head narrowly wide.
Arsenal have been a team of two halves and they needed to come out in the second period and play the best they have played all season.
And the Gunners got back into it off a corner. If the defending from Arsenal in the second goal was poor, then the defending from Bayern for the home side's goal was even worse.
The corner was allowed to bounce by the Bayern defense, with Neuer coming out to no avail, allowing Podolski to head into an empty net.
Arsenal pressed and probed, while Bayern kept looking dangerous every time they went forward. The Norwegian referee Oddwar Moen was getting a little too card happy in the meanwhile, with Podolski, Muller and Ramsey also going into the book.
Podolski soon after threatened with a nice run, cutting in from the left, but rather scuffed his right-footed shot.
Arsene Wenger made a couple of changes with 20 minutes to go, bringing on Tomas Rosicky and Olivier Giroud for Ramsey and Podolski.
Giroud almost scored with his first touch, after some nice play from Rosicky found Walcott in space on the right, and his cross found the Arsenal striker, but Neuer kept his right-footed swivel strike out.
Bayern also made a couple of substitutions, with Heynckes, clearly not happy with the way the game was going, taking off the goalscorer Kroos and Franck Ribery for Arjen Robben and defensive midfielder Luis Gustavo.
The German side time and again looked likely to score every time they went forward, with both fullbacks - Lahm and David Alaba -- making nice runs on the outside, and Arsenal's hopes of remaining in the Champions League pretty much ended from one of those moves.
Mandzukic held the ball up well before playing the ball to Robben on the left, who waited and then cut in, before sliding the ball to the overlapping Lahm in space. The rightback played the perfect cross across the six yard box, with Mandzukic just about bundling it in in the 77th minute and with it making the second leg in Munich on March 13 pretty much academic.
Arsenal did all they could to keep the tie alive, but really class shone through in the end - this Bayern team are not too far off Barcelona and really could be the best Bayern team of alltime.
