Arsenal vs. FC Bayern Munich. Champions League Round of 16. 19 February 2013

The match will be played at the Emirates Stadium (Known as the "Arsenal Stadium" during European nights for sponsorship reasons).

The match kick-off will be at 20:45 GMT (7:45) and 2:45 EST in America. The match will be available live on FOX Soccer from 2:30.

I work on NAVMAG Indian Island (as a janitor on base aleaning the units) during the match (it begins at 11:45 am PT) and I don't get off work until 5:30 pm PT, so I guess I'll either have to wait for a replay of the telecast or follow this thread for a spoiler, hopefully someone will put an [R] next to it so I can get the aggragate score for the upcoming second leg, I hope we don't put ourselves behind the 8 ball like we did this morning against Championship side Blackburn in our FA Cup loss, because if you handicap a club like Bayern a 2-3 goal lead going into leg 2 in Munich at Allianz-Arena (I could give a shit what UEFA chooses to rename it for "sponsorship" rights, I'll still call it Allianz thank you) you are pretty much writing your own eulogy because we all know how solid they are on both ends of the pitch, they pretty much have the complete package. Manuel Neuer is one of the top keepers in the Bundesliga if not all of Europe, and the high-powered offense which includes ex-Wolfsburg star Mario Mandzukic, along with Frank Ribery, Mario Gomez, Luis Gustavo, Thomas Muller, Philip Lamm, and of course Bastian Schweinsteiger, must be held to a minimum if not shut down altogether (highly unlikely), to at least give us some margin of error going into the crucial second leg.

Well, it can't go much worse than the first match of last years round of 16. Maybe they could pull off what they did in the 2nd match against Milan.

It is possible for our attackers to have a bad day, and be stopped by your defense, except Mertesacker all the other defenders are quality. Merte is good too, but Bayern play on the ground unlike the other English teams, and Merte will be vulnerable. But the real problem is your attack scoring a goal on our defense. After all you took the least shots on target in the CL group stage even with less better defenses. I just can't see Arsenal scoring more than one goal, and Bayern will score at least one for sure. 1-1 is the best result you can get.

And let me say this once again, it's not like i am trolling or smth, i respect the team and especially the fans that are supporting a "selling club with no ambition". You love this club, but at this point Bayern is just to strong, and has more experienced players on the big stage. Our players have played and won a lot of CL 1/8 and 1/4 finals and played in two finals. They've beaten Real Madrid, Manchester United and other big teams. Current Arsenal team has done nothing in Europe.

Cheers guys, better times will come for you.

I wonder if Phillip Lahm has ever actually been to Macedonia.

Na, trolling would be a Munich fan saying how much we are shite and how they would win 5-0. You were actually insightful.

our only hope is that bayern bunker us down so much that we can counter fast.

Naah he hasn't been, only a few Bayern players have been here, and we(We as our registered fan club) have always greeted them and welcomed them, they were always nice, took pictures and talked to us. But lets not go off topic. I know the situation is tensed here, i won't bother anymore.

16-2-2011. Never forget. If we can do it against all odds versus the undisputed best in the world, we can do it to Bayern!

KILL!!!

Anyone know why Podolski did not play a minute in either of the last 2 matches? This after playing only 33 minutes against Stoke on Feb 2nd, and scoring the only goal/winning MOTM.

I figure he's got a knock, but there is news on arsenal.com about everybody else's injuries and it doesn't mention Podolski. Was he really rested while healthy for 2 matches in a row? Strange considering there was also a week's worth of rest between the matches anyway.

who knows what wacky thoughts go through wenger's mind?
if it means anything, podolski played 68 mins for germany on the 6th, after stoke and before sunderland.

He has been on the bench and has been seen warming up on the side-lines (today) but I am guessing that Wenger thought that Walcott, Wilshere, and Cazorla were more than capable of getting a win.

What do you guys think your line up will look like??

Ours will most likely look like this:

Injuries: badstuber out for the year
Suspensions: boetang will miss both legs

Line up:

Lahm dvb Dante Alaba
Piggy Martinez
Muller kroos Ribery
Mandzucic

Bench: Gomez, robben, Gustavo, shaqiri, rafhina, contento, tymoschuk

Not bad.

For us I am guessing this:

Chez
Sagna-Laurent-Mertesaker-Vermaelen
Arteta-Wilshere-Cazorla
Walcott-Giroud-Podolski

Subs: Mannone, Jenkinson, Miquel, Diaby, Rosicky, Gervinho, Oxlade-Chamberlain.

This is what I think Wenger would put out. If I did the line-ups I would probably play Rosicky ahead of Arteta for pace reasons but ya... thats basically it.

Your line-up, now that I think of it, is not that horrible (for us). Defensively I feel Arsenal can break you guys down. However, other than that, you guys seem unbeatable. That midfield is a gem and your main striker Mario is a beast.

If Arsenal can defend well on Tuesday and maybe learn to be clinical then I am confident we can leave with a 2-1 lead or a 1-1 going to Munich.

Prob
Chez
Sagna-Mert-Kos-Verm
Arteta-Wilshere-Cazorla
Walcott-Giroud-Podolski

Which one?

Well... both actually. But the one I am talking about is Mandzukic (spelling?). I think he has like 13-15 goals in around 20 games so far so I think he will be the beast to watch out for.

i think we'll go 4231, with arteta and wilshere (nominally) behind walcott, cazorla and podolski with giroud up front.

I hope we kick off first and hit a nice chip down to the other end since there is no goalie. Get the early goal.

it might be gervinho doing it though..........

Tomorrow Arsenal will sign Carlos Vela to a 3-day loan deal just to chip in the goal. We will then bring on Jenkinson and play with 5 defenders and bring in Coq and play defensive for the rest of the game to hold onto a 1-0 win.

Works every time.

In that case, the crowd should be glad there is a fence.

At times neuer has been so bored that he has someone from the bench warm him up with a few practice balls during stoppages...

But I never include the goalies cuz that's always a given.. But still funny

You guys normally play 4-3-3??

I don't think we have ever played that this year or any time I can remember.

Provably will change when pep takes over.