Bayern Munich introduced a slightly changed 4-2-3-1 formation from their last encounter. Javi Martinez replaced Jerome Boateng at the back. Bastian Schweinsteiger partnered Thiago Alcantara in midfield. Phillip Lahm played the whole game at the right back. Mario Gotze was flanked by Frank Ribery and Arjen Robben, with Mario Mandzukic as the striker.
Bayern Munich typically concentrated on the perfection of their possession game. They started building their attacks by a central midfielder dropping into the middle of central defence to receive the ball and the centre halves splitting. In the middle of the park, they patiently moved the ball from the flanks. Up top they played with freedom and rotation with Mandzukic sometimes looking for space on the wide areas.
Arsene Wenger made six changes to his starting eleven. Lukasz Fabianski came in for the suspended Wojciech Szcesney. Thomas Vermaelen covered for injured left backs Kieran Gibbs and Nacho Monreal.
Mikel Arteta took the holding role, while Alex Oxlade Chamberlain constantly moved up when Arsenal were attacking. Santi Cazorla had Mesut Ozil to his right and Lukas Podolski to his left.
Olivier Giroud played up top as a lone striker in place of Yaya Sanogo. Wenger knew that Bayern would dominate ball possession so he had to hope that the pace of Oxlade Chamberlain, Podolski and Cazorla would help his side run in behind Bayern defence on the counter attack.
The first-half had few chances because Arsenal were defensively solid. Bacary Sagna and Vermaelen did a great job at keeping Franck Ribery and Arjen Robben quiet. When Arsenal got the ball though, Bayern pressed impressively, forcing Arsenal into errors. The most important player in Bayern’s pressing was Schweinsteiger, who barely allowed Arteta breathing space.
Without Arteta, Arsenal struggled to build up attacks so they relied on Chamberlain’s individual brilliance. As the half drew to a close, Bayern were making gradual progress down the right-hand side with Gotze, Robben and Lahm combining well, but they lacked quality final balls into the box.
Ozil didn’t come back for the second half as he picked up a hamstring injury and was replaced by Tomas Rosicky. Ten minutes into the second half and Frank Ribery finally managed to beat his countryman Sagna to slip the ball to an unmarked Schweinsteiger. Cazorla could have easily prevented the goal by tracking his runner.
Arsenal improved their intent after going behind and, for a moment, Bayern looked nervous. The Gunners equalised two minutes later.
Wenger tried to chase the tie later on by sacrificing Arteta for speedy Serge Gnabry, but Guardiola countered the move with Toni Kroos for Gotze. So Arsenal’s threat improved but Kroos controlled the flow of possession well for the Bavarian giants.
Bayern were concerned with keeping things calm and controlling the game through ball retention, since Arsenal were trailing from the first leg.
The gunners needed to be braver. The European champions looked nervous when they did not have the ball, particularly Martinez. If Arsenal had worked the ball quickly to leave their runners one-on-one with him or Dante, maybe they could have left Germany with more than just a draw.
