Arsenal beat Bayern Munich when the German giants last visited north London - but it wasn't enough to keep them in the Champions League.
Arsene Wenger's side were paired with Bayern in the last 16 of the competition in 2004/05 and were left with a mountain to climb after falling three goals behind in the first leg in Germany.
Match Details
| Arsenal 1-0 Bayern Munich UEFA Champions League Knockout Round 2nd Leg Arsenal Stadium, Highbury Wednesday, March 9, 2005 Kick-off: 7.45pm Scorer: Thierry Henry 66 Attendance: 35,463 Referee: Massimo De Santis (Italy) |
But Kolo Toure's late strike threw Arsenal a lifeline and left them needing a 2-0 win to advance to the quarter-finals on away goals.
In a high-class, high-octane encounter at Highbury, Thierry Henry put the Gunners on course with a brilliantly-taken goal in the 66th minute.
Ashley Cole was the instigator with a ball into the left channel and Henry got ahead of Lucio to show instant control before beating Germany's No 1, Oliver Kahn.
The Teams
| Arsenal: Lehmann, Lauren, Toure, Senderos, Cole, Ljungberg (Van Persie 80), Flamini (Fabregas 63), Vieira, Reyes (Pires 63), Bergkamp, Henry. Subs Not Used: Taylor, Silva, Clichy, Owusu-Abeyie. Booked: Bergkamp, Toure, Fabregas. Bayern Munich: Kahn, Sagnol, Lucio, Kovac, Lizarazu, Demichelis, Salihamidzic (Hargreaves 90), Deisler (Ze Roberto 72), Ballack, Guerrero (Linke 85), Pizarro. Subs Not Used: Rensing, Hashemian, Jeremies, Schweinsteiger. Booked: Demichelis, Salihamidzic, Ballack, Lizarazu. |
Arsenal had 24 minutes to find the second goal that would take them through but they struggled to get up a head of steam.
Patrick Vieira went close with a low shot after juggling the ball away from Martin Demichelis and Henry fired an effort straight at Kahn after collecting a return pass from Jose Antonio Reyes.
Dennis Bergkamp, back from suspension, and Reyes struggled to impose themselves, and Wenger brought on young Cesc Fabregas and the experienced head of Robert Pires for one final push.
However, arguably the best chance of the latter stages fell to Michael Ballack, who forced an excellent save from his compatriot, Jens Lehmann.
With two minutes left Toure's header was superbly tipped over the bar by Kahn, and that was the closest Wenger's team got to a famous triumph.
Bayern held on to take their place in the quarter-finals but Arsenal would return strongly the following season, reaching the final in Paris.
Ultimately, one-nil to the Arsenal wasn't good enough in March 2005.
In February 2013, it will do very nicely.
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