THE German media poured praise on Carlo Ancelotti’s Bayern Munich, on Thursday, after their 5-1 drubbing of Arsenal allowed the Italian to step out of Pep Guardiola’s shadow.
“Big Bayern”, “The Red Rush” and “Respect, Bayern” were the headlines here after the Bundesliga leaders dominated Tuesday’s Champions League’s last 16, first-leg, clash.
Bayern extended their Champions League record run to 16 home wins by putting Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal to the sword with three goals in 10 magical second-half minutes.
Arjen Robben’s early goal was cancelled out by an Alexis Sanchez penalty, converted at the second-attempt, as it finished 1-1 at the break.
Bayern hit top gear in the second-half with attacking midfielder Thiago Alcantara, who’s performance Ancelotti dubbed ‘perfect’, leading the charge with two goals.
Robert Lewandowski restored Bayern’s lead by out-leaping the Arsenal defence on 53 minutes and 178 seconds later, his flick put Thiago behind the defence to make it 3-1.
The Spanish midfielder then banged home, via a deflection, from outside the area to effectively slam the door shut on Arsenal’s quarter-finals hopes.
Thomas Mueller simply completed the rout two minutes from time with a fifth goal off the bench.
As Bayern captain Philipp Lahm put it, “before the penalty, we were very good, up until half-time we weren’t really good, but after that we were sensational.”
