Arsenal hosted German giants Borussia Dortmund last night in the UEFA Champions League in what was expected to be a blockbuster clash between two of the most exciting and attacking sides of Europe. However, it was the Gunners who faced disappointment as they came away with no points at all.
Arsenal have been facing a voodoo of sorts when it comes to playing against German teams at the Emirates Stadium. They were beaten by Schalke 2-0 and then by Bayern Munich 3-1 at home last season, and this time it was Dortmund who got the better of the London outfit.
Dortmund, who are last season’s runners up of the competition, opened the scoring in the 16th minute after Aaron Ramsey was robbed of possession by Marco Reus who combined with Robert Lewandowski and laid it on for summer signing Henrikh Mkhitaryan to draw first blood. Arsenal then leveled the game just before half-time after a lack of communication in the Dortmund defense let Olivier Giroud score an open goal.
Arsenal surged ahead looking for a winner in the second half and even came close when substitute Santi Cazorla’s thunderous strike hit the bar. As they ventured for that elusive second goal, they left loads of empty space in defense and one Dortmund counter-attack in the 82nd minute saw their star striker Robert Lewandowski score the winner, completely against the run of play.
Wenger believes that the Arsenal back four were naive in conceding the second goal, which makes matters tense in this season’s ‘Group of Death’. Yahoo! EuroSport report him as saying, “We put ourselves on the back foot with the first goal and naive for the second goal,”
“If you look at the number of saves our keeper had to make tonight and you concede two goals, you can say that we can only look at ourselves for not being mature enough in situations like that.”
“If you cannot win the game, you don’t lose it. Especially in the second half when we were on top, we made things difficult for ourselves by giving them the second goal.”
Wenger will be hoping that this defeat will not affect Arsenal’s excellent form in the league as they enter a crucial few weeks with several big games lined up.