Arsenal fans reacted with a mixture of acceptance and frustration as their team fell to defeat in the first leg of their Champions League tie against Bayern Munich.
Some Arsenal fans thought the quality of the performance was high – they felt that their team was let down by a poor standard of officiating.
However, others were less impressed. They aimed the majority of their ire at the Gunners’ front three, lamenting the absence of star attacking players such as Vivianne Miedema and Beth Mead.
The difference between us and them is our CF.
If anything, we're the better team, we just lack a competent CF.
Wheatley not getting someone in in Jan is horrible business.
— Gozienna (@Anams_11) March 21, 2023
We deserved the win in my opinion. The officials were shocking.
— ruby (@rubywoso_) March 21, 2023
With all that dominance, I cannot fault @eidevall on this no matter how slender the margin of defeat is. We must fix it in the 2nd leg and score goals…nothing to be proud of to be honest, till we fix our attack
— Marto the Gooner™ (@martoverminator) March 21, 2023
Officiating once again totally sub standard, but we have to hit the damn ball when in the box, lace it so they can’t save on the line. Also why can’t we hit Stina first time, delay all the time and then it’s too late. However we deserved much more out of that game tbf!
— Bal (@Bal_Tastic) March 21, 2023
Pi55 poor performance. Easy to blame the ref but these players looked completely lacking again today
— Trevor Weston (@Gillsfc11) March 21, 2023
standard of officiating was absolutely horrendous
— Kia (@kia_edmonds) March 21, 2023
Despite registering more shots than their German opponents (25 in total, six on target), Arsenal could not find a way to breach Maria Luisa Grohs’ goal. Interestingly, they also prevented the home side from winning a single corner across the entire game.
The Gunners had numerous penalty shouts during the match, all of which were turned down. While some Arsenal fans chose to blame this for their defeat, others were less impressed.
Bayern’s centre-forward, Lea Schuller, was the player of the match – Arsenal’s injury woes meant that they did not have a striker to match her quality available to play.
Nevertheless, the Gunners have it all to do in the second leg. They’ll have the home advantage, but they will need to be on top of their game if they’re to come from behind.