Bayern, Atletico in more away joy
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Bayern Munich and Atletico Madrid made it four away wins from the opening four Champions League last-16 first leg matches when they triumphed at Arsenal and AC Milan, respectively, on Wednesday.
Holder Bayern defeated Arsenal 2-0 at The Emirates while Atletico scraped past AC Milan 1-0 at the San Siro.
Toni Kroos opened the scoring in London for Pep Guardiola’s side when he curled a stunning right-foot shot into the top corner in the 54th minute.
Second-half substitute Thomas Mueller headed the second goal for Bayern in the 88th following a cross from Philipp Lahm.
Kroos and Mueller had also netted in the 3-1 win a year ago to the day against the same opponent in London and Arsenal will have to repeat at the very least its 2-0 win in the away leg last year to hold any hope of progressing.
An incident-packed first half yielded two missed penalties and a sending-off.
Arsenal playmaker Mesut Ozil’s weak spot kick was easily palmed away by Manuel Neuer in the eighth minute and Bayern’s David Alaba smacked his penalty against a post after ‘keeper Wojciech Szczesny was dismissed for bringing down Arjen Robben in the area.
“Arsenal were much, much better than us in the first 15 minutes and after the goalkeeper was sent off the game changed,” said Bayern coach Pep Guardiola.
“However, it was not easy for us with nine Arsenal players in their penalty area but we played patiently and in the end we broke them down.
“Last year Bayern had a better result than this evening and in the end it was a very close run thing.
“It will depend on our heads in Munich but we will play to win.”
Wenger bemoaned what he saw as his side not having luck run its way.
“Everything went against us. We should have been 3-0 up before they got a sniff in the game,” he said. “We had more problems in the second half with 10 men because they have very good players.”
Atletico gave itself a great chance of making the quarterfinals for the first time in 17 years as a fifth goal of the campaign by Diego Costa seven minutes from time gave it a 1-0 win at Milan.
Milan had started the brightest against Atletico but the early fireworks were not a foretaste of what was to come as the match petered out.
Atletico finally broke the deadlock as Diego Costa headed home to give the Spaniards a superb chance of reaching the quarterfinals and end Italian interest in the competition.
Atletico’s Argentinian coach Diego Simeone said that his side had improved after a wobbly start.
“Milan were full on and aggressive, especially after the first 10 minutes,” said the 43-year-old former midfielder. “However, in the second half we played better, and we gained control little by little.”
On Tuesday, Barcelona won 2-0 at Manchester City while Paris St Germain romped to a 4-0 victory at Bayer Leverkusen.
The other four first-leg ties will be staged next week.
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