Bayern Munich could yet crown a disappointing season with the Champions League title. Arsenal faces the prospect of ending a promising season with no trophy.
Joshua Kimmich’s header powered Bayern to a 1-0 win over Arsenal on Wednesday to reach the Champions League semi-finals with a 3-2 victory on aggregate.
With the score at 2-2 from the first leg in London, Kimmich’s header off Raphaël Guerreiro’s pinpoint cross put Bayern ahead in the 63rd minute as Bayern largely neutralized the English team’s attack.
In the other game on Wednesday, Real Madrid advanced to the semi-finals after beating Manchester City 4-3 on penalties at Etihad Stadium.
Arsenal’s players were “gutted,” manager Mikel Arteta told broadcaster TNT Sports. “I cannot find the right words to lift them.”
Bayern kept alive its hopes of finishing the season with a trophy three days after Bayer Leverkusen ended Bayern’s 11-year reign as German champion. Striker Harry Kane – who spoke Tuesday of being motivated by his release from Arsenal as a youth player – takes a step closer to what would be the first trophy of his career.
Tuchel said it meant “really a lot” to beat Arsenal. “The semi-finals are an important step, the last four, that was fun,” he told broadcaster DAZN.
Bayern and Arsenal have been drawn together five times in the knockout stages of the Champions League since 2005 and the German team has eliminated Arsenal on each occasion.
Arsenal’s Champions League exit follows a heavy blow to its Premier League title ambitions in a 2-0 loss to Aston Villa on Sunday. Defeat also rules Arsenal out of next year’s Club World Cup in the United States, in favour of Austrian team Salzburg.
Arsenal was left to rue the defensive errors that cost the team in the first leg.
“We gave them two goals, a big advantage to give away, and today you could see it was margin of error zero, we made a mistake defending the goal and we conceded,” Arteta said.
In the Real Madrid-Man City game, Antonio Rüdiger struck the decisive spot kick after the game had finished 1-1 through extra time and 4-4 on aggregate.
Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic both saw their penalties saved in the shootout as defending champion City was eliminated by record 14-time winner Madrid.
Rodrygo fired Madrid ahead in the 12th minute with a twice-taken effort from close range to beat City goalkeeper Ederson on the rebound.
City dominated the game from then on with Kevin De Bruyne levelling in the 76th by lifting a shot high into the net from close range.
The match was tied 4-4 on aggregate after the first leg ended 3-3 in Madrid last week.
City immediately took advantage in the shootout after Julián Álvarez converted his opening penalty and Luka Modric’s effort was saved.
But Madrid keeper Andriy Lunin then saved successive spot kicks from Silva and Kovacic to swing the balance in the visitors’ favour.
Defeat ended City’s bid to become the first English team to win back-to-back Champions League titles and its pursuit of successive trebles. City is still challenging for the Premier League title and FA Cup.
Victory for Madrid keeps the Spanish giant in the hunt for a record-extending 15th European Cup. It also saw it advance to the semi-finals for the fourth year in row – denying City the chance to emulate that feat.
But Madrid had to dig in to get past Pep Guardiola’s team, which dominated the majority of the match without managing to add to De Bruyne’s second-half goal.