Tuesday, 20 October 2015

Wenger: We beat Bayern before and we can do it again





One by one some of the greatest players in the history of the game will step off Bayern Munich's branded Champions League bus when it pulls up at the Emirates on Tuesday evening.

There is an aura about Pep Guardiola's team, an air of invincibility after nine successive victories in the Bundesliga, two convincing triumphs in the Champions League and a win in the German Cup. They look and feel menacing.

The names of Robert Lewandowski, Thomas Muller, Douglas Costa, Thiago Alcantara, Philipp Lahm and the sweeper-keeper Manuel Neuer are football's equivalent to the Harlem Globetrotters. 

Little wonder, then, that Arsene Wenger joked about sleeping badly as he contemplated his team selection for a game Arsenal are under pressure to win. This Bayern team oozes class.

You have to respect Bayern, historically they have won the European Cup five times and Arsenal zero,' admitted Wenger, who was uncharacteristically deferential at the official UEFA press conference. 'We cannot say historically we are at the same level as Bayern because they have done it in the past. They have the history and the knowledge. What we want is to get there.

'We will look at the potential performance on the day. After that, history doesn't play the game. We want to win the Champions League, but the obsession at the moment is to stay in it, not to win it.'

They are in a spot of bother in Group F because Arsenal were beaten 2-1 by Dinamo Zagreb and then surprisingly defeated at the Emirates by Greek outsiders Olympiacos


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