After a 3-1 defeat in the away leg, in one of the most lethargic, and, well, awful, Arsenal displays of recent years, I was surprisingly optimistic about this one. A 2-0 win would do nicely, so if we could keep it tight, score early in the second half, then get the all-important second late on, I could easily see how we could get through. Also, for some reason I have never really rated Bayern Munich, I just don't see what's so good about them.
Amazingly, my confidence seemed to be shared by many other Arsenal fans too. Lots of people seemed to be saying the same, right down to the late second goal to seal the tie.
It nearly worked, too. After a goalless first half, I felt even more optimistic - Arsenal had some good half chances, and it looked like they would be able to keep turning the screw and make it count in the second half. Obviously, going without conceding also did us no harm at all.
When Thierry Henry scored on 66 minutes (his fourth goal in 5 days), even more optimism - the Bayern players seemed to be completely unaware of our evil masterplan, which was coming true down to every last detail!! More attacking play from Arsenal for the remaining 24 minutes, but that late winner never did come, we just couldn't make the pressure count.
We seemed to retreat into our shells a bit for the last 10 minutes, mindful of not conceding a goal, which annoyed me. 1-0 was no good to us in any case, so 1-1 was no disadvantage - we may as well have gone all out for the 2-0 win, and may have got it too. I think if the game had lasted another 10 minutes, the second goal would have come, but we just ran out of time in the face of a well-organised Bayern team. Amazing really how close we eventually came to going through, after such an abysmal first leg performance.
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