Champions League 2012-13: The second leg of 1/8 final matches, Part IV

Read Part I, Part II and Part III

A historical evening is awaiting the Champions League fans, as England is going to lose its last Champions League participant before the quarterfinals. The Arsenal of 2012-13 has got no chances to score minimum three goals to this Bayern, which is a hot favorite to win the tournament. In fact, Bayern has never conceded three in this season’s official matches. The last team to score three in Munich was Inter: it happened in this stage of Champions League 2 years ago.

The German visitors won 3-1 at the Emirates Stadium three weeks ago. As in a casual Bundesliga match, Bayern never showed the full power of its attacks: taking the advantage of Arsenal’s defenders was enough for them to score three. They were also calm when defending so that Arsenal had not much to hope for. Podolski managed to score from a wrongly-given
corner in the second half, though. Poldi’s scoring to his former club seemed to awaken the intrigue in the tie, but the second goal never came. Arsenal was really poor in organizing attacks, although the substitute Giroud had a positive impact on the team. Then it came Mandzukic’s goal on the 77^th minute. Toni Kroos and Phillipp Lahm played a significant role that evening, carrying both defensive and attacking responsibilities. Kroos was there to start the show as he opened the score after Mueller’s great cross from the right wing. Lahm assisted Mandzukic in the third goal. Arsene Wenger, who had had problems controlling his nerves during the press conference before the match, had to accept the defeat in what may become his last Champions League match at the Emirates.

There is not much to say about this tie. Heynckes’s side is obviously not going to underestimate the opponent, knowing the English team has got nothing to lose. And Arsenal is having one of its worst seasons under Arsene Wenger’s management. They need a miracle to advance to the next round.  

The last quarterfinal participant will be decided in the tie between the Spanish Malaga and the Portuguese Porto. The teams have been impressive this season, but one of them is going to concentrate on the domestic issues soon.

The first match was won by Vitor Perreira’s team thanks to Joao Moutinho’s sole goal. The fact that Porto’s solid defense didn’t concede at home makes the team a favorite. Now they need to score again to kill the intrigue, and their attacking potential of the Dragons is on a pretty high level. The impression from the 90 minutes of the first leg match was that the home side had the things under control, not letting the opponent to organize attacks. Vitor Perreira knew that Malaga was not the team to give up when appeared under a huge pressure, so he took things easy and the chance came early in the second half. If 0-0 could be a good result for Porto, 1-0 was even better, so the task was now not to let Malaga stars show their class. The mission was completed.

As for Malaga, the team was set to perform having the same aim in mind: a win is good, a draw is not bad either. They weren’t prepared to concede that goal so, when it happened, the team had difficulties to shift from a defensive set of mind into attacking. The frightening factor of conceding another one had probably also played its role, so that the visitors never bid a serious application for a goal. Actually they were good in defending throughout the whole match. Demichelis and teammates have something to be proud of. The problem was the midfield, where the team was lacking creativity. Porto’s midfielders gave not many chances for Baptista, Toulalan and Joaquin, which automatically prevented Isco and Santa Cruz of getting the ball.

This time they simply have to score, so Manuel Pellegrini has got a big problem to solve. Porto has only lost two matches during the season, so Joaquin and Isco have to show something extraordinary tonight to become the third Spanish quarterfinalist of this Champions League. Because a conceded goal is close to death, the team doesn’t have to risk from the first minutes. The match they played against Milan at the group stage may be an example of a calm but deserved win. If nothing unexpected happens during the first minutes of the match, we are going to witness a lullaby by Malaga, which is suddenly going to turn into a rock opera in the last 25 minutes of the match. Porto has to continue the way they played in the first match and throughout the season. They have 75% chances to appear in the next round of this Champions League.