Bayern Munich goalkeeper Manuel Neuer is of the opinion that the German team were extremely fortunate to progress into the quarter-finals of the Champions League after losing 2-0 to Premier league opponents Arsenal in the second leg. Despite this defeat, the German club progressed to the next round on the away goals rule. However, things would have been extremely difficult for them had they conceded another goal from Arsenal in the final few minutes. Bayern came into the match on the back of a commanding 3-1 lead on aggregate from the first leg.
As a result, many were of the opinion that the work was almost done for the German club. It was extremely easy to see the complacency in Bayern Munich’s play from the start. Arsenal almost immediately took advantage of it through a goal from Oliver Giroud. However, they were unable to find the second goal that would equalise the tie on aggregate until the 86th minute when the defender Laurent Koscielny scored from a corner. It gave Arsenal a huge hope that they could make the unlikeliest comebacks in the history of the competition.
However, Bayern held on to see them progress into the quarter-finals where they will be facing the Italian champions Juventus.
“I don’t think we were at our best today and a lot of things didn’t go right for us. We’re lucky we built up such a lead in London. If we hadn’t won 3-1 there then we wouldn’t have gone through. However, as a professional you have to accept that sometimes games like this can go wrong because there are lot of quality teams playing on a level with one another. We have to learn from this and take the experience into future matches,” said the goalkeeper, who has been one of the main reasons for the spectacular defensive record of Bayern this season.