Key events
23 min: Replays suggest that was a very slopppy and quite avoidable goal for Arsenal to concede but the ruthlessness of Bayern on the counter after pouncing on their error should also be commended.
21 min: That equaliser stemmed from an uncharacteristically poor pass from Gabriel to Jakub Kiwior, which Sane intercepted on the halfway line. He sent Goretska on his way and it was he, not Kane, who slipped Gnabry in on goal.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-1 Bayern Munich (Gnabry 18)
Bayern equalise! Leroy Sane, Kane and Serge Gnabry combine to carve open Arsenal down the middle. The former Arsenal player runs on to a perfectly weighted pass to fire home from just inside the penalty area. David Raya got something on the ball but couldn’t keep it out.
16 min: Chance! Ben White is wreaking havoc for Arsenal and on this occasion, he runs on to a perfectly weighted short pass through the centre from Havertz and shoots straight at Manuel Neuer when he had the entire Bayern goal to aim at.
15 min: Just before that goal went in, I was abnout to write that Davies v Saka was shaping up to be one of tonight’s key battles. It’s one Saka is winning hands down at the moment.
14 min: It was a wonderful finish from Saka, who let a wonderfully weighted pass inside from Ben White run across his body before placing an inch-perfect, curled finish into the far corner.
GOAL! Arsenal 1-0 Bayern Munich (Saka 12)
Arsenal lead! Saka cuts inside and fires the hosts into the lead with a low curled effort into the bottom corner.
11 min: Over 10 minutes in and Arsenal already have the upper hand, much as you’d expect. They advance upfield again with Odegaard on the ball.
9 min: Dier hoofs the ball long under pressure and Arsenal win the it again. Alphonso Davies tackles Buklayo Saka when the ball’s played his way and picks up a booking that will rule him out of the second leg. That’s a pretty soft booking and there was no real need for it this early in the game.
7 min: Saka intercepts the ball on the right flank as Bayern try to play it out from the back and it’s worked inside to Martinelli. He shoots from distance and his effort fizzes wide of the upright. A decent effort.
6 min: Eric Dier plays a routine backpass to Manuel Neuer from outside his own penalty area and is loudly booed by a home crowd he had already delighted with his overhit free-kick a few minutes ago.
4 min: Jamal Musiala gets on the ball for Bayern down near the corner flag and plays it inside but his side is forced backwards.
3 min: Arsenal enjoy some time on the ball before playing a long diagonal from the back towards it forward towards Bukayo Saka. That delivery is also overhit and the ball sails out of play for a Bayern throw-in. Some early nerves as assorted players find their bearings.
2 min: Leroy Sane sends a cross from the right into the Arsenal penalty area and Gabriel heads it up in the air on the edge of his six-yard box. It’s quickly cleared.
Arsenal v Bayern Munich is go …
1 min: Bayern Munich get the ball rolling at the Emirates, their players wearing navy blue shirts, shorts and socks with purple trim. They quicklly win a free-kick just inside their own half and it’s hit way too hard by Eric Dier. The ball bounces wide for an Arsenal goal-kick.
Not long now: Referee Glenn Nyberg and his team of Swedish match officials lead the sides out, where they are greeted by a capacity crowd comprised entirely of nervous, excited Gooners.
They line up for the Champions League anthem and kick-off is just a few pre-match handshakes, an exchange of club pennants and a coin-toss away. Martin Odegaard and Manuel Neuer are tonight’s skippers, taking part in the very last of the pre-match formalities.
Arsenal: Mikel Arteta has said his side has the belief they can “create their own history” against Bayern Munich as they prepare for their first appearance in a Champions League quarter-final for 14 years. Ed Aarons reports …
Arsenal: The German champions will find the mood at the Emirates in stark contrast to that for their last Champions League visit in 2017, writes Nick Ames.
Thomas Tuchel: “Arsenal are currently the best team in the Premier League and that is deserved, all the data shows that,” said the Bayern boss. “They are in great form and have been at the highest level for the last two seasons so it’s a massive test for us.
“It’s the second year for them where they’re playing at this really high level, they have so much energy on the pitch and they can keep it for a long time.
“We know about our own strengths and how we want to cause them pain. We know the Champions League is a competition where we have more experience over the last few years. We want to use it to our advantage.”
Mikel Arteta: “From my side, no,” said the Arsenal manager upon being asked if he thinks Bayern Munich’s poor domestic form will have any bearing on this tie.
“As well it’s something that we have no say over, no control. We don’t know, but we always expect the best from any opponent. Whether we play Bayern, Brighton last week, Villa next week … regardless of where they are you always have to expect they’ll play in their best possible way and out-perform them.”
Those teams: Mikel Arteta makes two changes to the team that beat Brighton at the Amex Stadium on Saturday, opting to freshen up the left side of his outfit. Gabriel Martinelli replaces Gabriel Jesus on the wing, while Jakub Kiwior is in for Oleksandr Zinchenko at left-back. Both players who have been dropped are likely to be disappointed, not least because they both played well against Brighton. Other opinions are, of course, available.
Manuel Neuer and Leroy Sane come in to the Bayern Munich side that lost at Heidenheim at the weekend, while Kingsley Coman, Noussair Mazraoui and Aleksandar Pavlovic, who also missed that game are on the bench. Eric Dier and Matthijs de Ligt are also in, for Dayot Upamecano and Kim Min-Jae in the heart of Bayern’s defence.
Arsenal v Bayern Munich line-ups
Arsenal: Raya, White, Saliba, Gabriel, Kiwior, Odegaard, Jorginho, Rice, Saka, Havertz, Martinelli.
Subs: Ramsdale, Partey, Gabriel Jesus, Smith Rowe, Nketiah, Tomiyasu, Trossard, Vieira, Nelson, Elneny, Hein, Zinchenko.
Bayern Munich: Neuer, Kimmich, Dier, de Ligt, Davies, Goretzka, Laimer, Sane, Musiala, Gnabry, Kane.
Subs: Upamecano, Kim, Coman, Choupo-Moting, Zaragoza, Peretz, Guerreiro, Muller, Ulreich, Tel, Mazraoui, Pavlovic.
Team news: We’ll have the full line-ups for you very shortly but can tell you in the meantime that Gabriel Jesus is on the bench for Arsenal.Both Harry Kane and Eric Dier start for Bayern Munich on what is bound to be an eagerly anticipated return to north London for both players.
Bayern Munich: The German champions will have to play in front of a completely partisan crowd in North London tonight, as they have been banned from bringing any travelling fans to the Emirates Stadium.
Uefa imposed the one-match suspension on their supporters after they threw fireworks on to the pitch during their side’s win over Lazio in Rome in the previous round. Their naughtiness triggered a suspended ban which had been handed down when they did the same thing during a previous Champions League game at Copenhagen in October.
Tonight’s match officials
Glenn Nyberg leads an all Swedish team of on-field match officials in tonight’s game, while his video assistant referees in the Uefa bunker are both Dutch.
Referee: Glenn Nyberg
Assistant referees: Mahbod Beigi and Andreas Söderqvist.
Fourth Official: Adam Ladebäck
VAR: Pol van Boekel and Dennis Johan Higler
Early Bayern Munich team news
Bayern Munich threw away a two-goal lead to lose against lowly Heidenheim in the Bundesliga last weekend and were missing Manuel Neuer, Aleksandr Pavlovic, Leroy Sane, Moussair Mazraoui and Kingsley Coman through injury or illness. All five players are expected to be available for selection tonight.
Thomas Tuchel will be without Bouna Sarr, Sacha Boey, Noel Aseko, Gabriel Marusic and Tarek Buchmann, who are all sidelined. Having missed the second leg of Bayern’s Round of 16 win over Lazio through suspension, Dayot Upemecano will almost certainly come back into their defence. Barring a slip in the bath-tub or some other freak accident on the day of the game, Harry Kane will start up front.
Early Arsenal team news
With Thomas Partey, Takehiro Tomiyasu, Gabriel Jesus and Oleksandr Zinchenko all fully fit after returning from injury, Mikel Arteta faces several selection dilemmas in key positions which he has described as “positive problems”.
Bukayo Saka is likely to start, despite struggling during his side’s weekend win over Brighton. If you glance upwards, you’ll see Declan Rice and Kai Havertz walking the disciplinary tightrope – both Arsenal summer signings are a yellow card away from missing the second leg through suspension.
Jurrien Timber, who has missed all but the first two games of the season for Arsenal after suffering a serious knee injury in their Premier League opener, is Arteta’s only absentee, although the Dutch defender is coming along nicely in training and scheduled to return at some point in the coming weeks.
Beefed up security at the Emirates and elsewhere: Police in Madrid and Paris have stepped up security before this week’s Champions League quarter-finals after an apparent threat from Islamic State.
In London, the Metropolitan police said it had “a robust policing plan” in place for the match between Arsenal and Bayern Munich at the Emirates Stadium.
A short time ago, BBC News reported that the Met are “trying to reassure people that there isn’t specific intelligence of an attack, it’s just that somebody has made an incitement towards these attacks.”
Their reporter from outside the Emirates concluded his piece to camera by saying that while the Met want everyone attending tonight’s game to be vigilant, they “don’t want anyone to be overly concerned.”
Champions League: Arsenal v Bayern Munich
Muddying their spats in the Champions League quarter-finals for the first time since 2010, when they were given fairly short shrift by Barcelona, Arsenal host Bayern Munich in tonight’s first leg and go into the tie as heavy favourites.
The German side are having a rum time of it this season and could be deposed as Bundesliga champions for the first time in 12 years as early as next weekend. Their manager, Thomas Tuchel, will leave the club in June and this is their final chance of winning silverware of any kind this season. Make no mistake, these Bavarian behemoths are a wounded animal and given their European pedigree, should be feared accordingly regardless of their lack of form.
Seeking revenge for the humiliation visited upon them by Bayern the last time the sides met in this competition, a 10-2 shellacking on aggregate in 2016-17, Arsenal’s players will also have the added incentive of facing Tottenham Hotspur old boy Harry Kane tonight.
Despite scoring 38 goals in all competitions in his first season for Bayern, the England skipper could finish yet another season trophyless and will face an extremely stern test against a parsimonious Arsenal defence over two legs. Kick-off at the Emirates is at 8pm (BST) but we’ll have plenty of team news and build-up in the meantime.
