Bayern Munich beat Arsenal 1-0 thanks to Joshua Kimmich's 63rd-minute header to book their place in the Champions League semi-finals on Wednesday. Real Madrid will face Bayern in the championship game. With their first league defeat of 2024 on Sunday, Arsenal lost their top spot in the Premier League table. The result capped off a terrible week for the team. Bayern Munich forward Harry Kane told TNT that "we picked up the pace after the first half was brutal." “These games are tough and we had to find a way through them. Whoever we face in the semi-finals, it will be a tough game." Mikel Arteta, the Arsenal manager, said his team "wanted it so badly".
But as many other teams show, sometimes it takes six or seven years to get to that point. The truth is, we were really close.” Unlike last week's thrilling four-goal contest in London, Wednesday's game was tense and saw few clear-cut opportunities for either side during a tense first half. With extra-time looming midway through the second half, Kimmich burst through Arsenal's defense to head home Raphael Guerreiro's flawless chip.
Due to Bayern's injury problems, Guerreiro was moved from full-back to the forwards and was a creative player when he did not play as often in defence. Six-time Champions League champions Bayern advance to the semi-finals alongside fellow Bundesliga side Borussia Dortmund, who take on Paris Saint-Germain.
With injuries to many first-team players, such as Kingsley Coman and former Arsenal winger Serge Gnabry, who scored with Kane in the first leg, Tuchel moved Guerreiro into an unusual advanced role. The Portuguese found space down the left wing and linked up well with Jamal Musiala in the middle as the move went smoothly from the start. To neutralize Leroy Sane, Arteta selected Takehiro Tomiyasu, a defensively stable player, over Jakub Kiwior at left-back; however, the Japanese, competing for the first time since December, noticeably lacked rhythm. Musiala's early ball was mishandled by Tomiyasu, allowing Sane to easily pass through the Arsenal box and force a corner. Gabriel Martinelli was the most threatening player for the guests in the first half. After seven minutes he curled the curling ball just wide of the post and half an hour later he fired straight at Manuel Neuer with the goalpost.
After the break, Bayern proved to be the better team as Leon Goretzka headed a deft Kimmich cruiser against the woodwork to go close. With the pressure on in the 63rd minute, Kimmich, one of the smallest players in the game, was able to get through Arsenal's busy box and head in Guerreiro's chip to give Bayern the lead. Arsenal tried to equalize and came close in stoppage time when Kai Havertz and Bukayo Saka pounced on a bouncing ball in the area, but the visitors' chances of returning to the Champions League semi-finals for the first time since 2009 were dashed.
