The Champions League Goes Haywire

Arsenal 2-2 Bayern, Real Madrid 3-3 Man City—and more to come tonight.

Ben White ran in behind the Bayern Munich defense 16 minutes in, dragging Serge Gnabry with him. It wasn’t the first time in the first half that the Arsenal fullback pulled the winger back into the Bavarian defensive line with a forward run, and on this occasion Gnabry struggled to deal with the ball Martin Ødegaard had scooped in over the top. He headed it straight into Kai Havertz’s path, and with one touch Arsenal’s German put White in, one-on-one with Manuel Neuer in the Bayern goal. It was the chance to make it 2-0, to stamp Arsenal’s authority on the tie after a quarter of an hour, but White shot tamely right at Neuer.

A minute later, it was 1-1. A quarter hour after that, Bayern led 2-1 in North London.

The Champions League quarterfinals are a harsh and unforgiving environment, and the young Gunners paid dearly for (some of) their mistakes. It was goalkeeper David Raya’s indecision that unsettled them ahead of the equalizer, sending big Gabriel out of rhythm as he tried to find Jakub Kiwior with a pass. He only found Leroy Sané, who swiftly found Leon Goretzka running in behind Declan Rice, who’d taken a wrong step forward, and suddenly Gnabry was poking it past Raya for Bayern’s first goal.

Gnabry was cooking against his former club.

The 28-year-old from Stuttgart was once a bright young prospect at Arsenal whose development the club so mismanaged that he refused to renew his contract and returned to Germany for a modest transfer fee. So it was almost inevitable that he would punish his former employers, and it wasn’t the only ugly homecoming as far as the North Londoners were concerned. Another highly vertical passage of play unfolded after Kiwior got skinned by Sané with a rolling turn along the sideline, and the winger ran half the field to draw a penalty from William Saliba. Up popped Harry Kane, scourge of the Arsenal since his days captaining hated neighbors Tottenham, to dispatch the chance with ease.

It hadn’t always been this way: the home side had shaken off a few early minutes of Bayern pressure to seize hold of the match via Bukayo Saka, who scampered onto White’s pass into the box and used a statuesque Eric Dier as a screen to curl one past Neuer, 1-0. Bayern were listless after that, their frayed relationship with manager Thomas Tuchel and this season itself proving costly. But then Arsenal let them back into it and into the lead.

Following a period of their own listlessness, though, the Gunners got themselves back into it. Mikel Arteta made his mistakes with the starting lineup, but his second-half substitutions bore fruit. Gabriel Jesus, who simply loves this competition, tricked his way into the Bayern penalty area and fashioned an opening to find Leandro Trossard, who swept home the equalizer with assurance. 2-2.

Trossard is consistently one of Arsenal’s best finishers.

From there, it was frantic stuff: Kingsley Coman padded a first-time effort off the post from close range after sending it through Raya’s legs, and then there was the penalty shout. Thomas Partey, another substitute, picked the ball up in midfield and played what looked like a ball for Jesus—except the Brazilian #9 let it run, taking two Bayern defenders out of the game, and suddenly Saka was hurtling in behind them towards the goal. Neuer came steaming out as he has countless times over the last 18 years, and then there was the moment of contact. At first glance, it looked a clear penalty, but the replays raised questions: had Saka initiated the contact, making sure he didn’t avoid Neuer? Could he have skipped past him and found a path to the Bayern goal through the scattered defenders trying to cover for the keeper?