Arsenal duo Thomas Vermaelen and Alex Oxlade-Chamberlain believe the side can take many positives from last night’s 1-1 draw with Bayern Munich, despite it knocking them out of the Champions League.
The Gunners went to the Allianz Arena needing to turn over their first-leg 2-0 defeat, and after Bastian Schweinsteiger gave the hosts a second-half lead on the night, it left Arsene Wenger’s men all but out of Europe’s top competition.
However, just minutes later, former-Munich star Lukas Podolski made it 1-1 on the night and 3-1 on aggregate.
The draw wasn’t enough for Arsenal to gain qualification to the next round, but it means they have gone to the Allianz Arena twice in the last two seasons and on both occasions, they have avoided defeat and both Vermaelen and Chamberlain believe positives can be taken.
“It’s a very similar feeling to last year [when Arsenal went out despite winning at Bayern],” Chamberlain told Arsenal Player. “We didn’t win here this year but I think we can take pride out of the performance to come here and get a 1-1 draw.
“It isn’t what we wanted or needed but I think we put in a really good shift and worked really hard all over the pitch. We were up against a really tough Bayern side. I think we did well and we can hold our heads high.
“We’re just gutted that we couldn’t do enough. Maybe on another day our final ball could have been a bit better and we could have found some more cutting edge, but it wasn’t to be.
“There are definitely positives for us to take from this performance and we can take that into the league and into the rest of the FA Cup [campaign].”
As for Vermaelen, he believes the players showed great fight over the 90-minutes.
“We worked hard as a team and you can’t blame the players,” he said. “The spirit in the team is very good. To fight really hard was the only thing we could do.
“In the end, 1-1 here is not a bad result but it was not good enough to go through and that is the big disappointment for us.
“We believed until the end because we [beat them in Munich] last year and thought we could have done it again but it wasn’t good enough.
“The result wasn’t great for us to go through but you always need to take the positives out of it. We worked hard and at the end of the day that is what you need to get results.
“We are still up there in the Premier League and we are in the semi-finals of the FA Cup so there is a lot to play for.”
Written by Alex Batt – @AlexBatt – @AlexsArticles
