Report: Arsenal 1-2 Dortmund

Arsenal suffered its first defeat of this season’s Champions League campaign as a sucker-punch from Robert Lewandowski, only eight minutes from time, settled matters in the Germans’ favour at the Emirates Stadium on Tuesday.

The away side had done well to come out of the blocks and they were ahead after just 16 minutes but it was not without Arsenal’s own undoing. Aaron Ramsey lost the ball in danger zone and Lewandowski set up Henrikh Mkhitaryan who found the net from 12 yards out.

The Gunners delivered a response as the first-half grew on and it was Olivier Giroud who smashed the hosts level from no man’s land after the Dortmund defense were left in confusion by a Sagna cross.

And then after Wenger’s men had pushed and pushed for a winner throughout the second-half, boasting 58% of possession and coming close from all sorts of angles from hitting the woodwork to having a goal disallowed, Arsenal were punished for leaving themselves open at the back and Lewandowski pounced onto a late counter-attack to net the winner after 82 minutes.

That brought an end to the unbeaten run the Gunners had put together ever since Aston Villa stormed the Emirates stadium on the opening day of the season. But as it was on that day, the outcome could have been different had one or two things went the right way today.

Marseille’s incompetency in losing to all opponents so far means that Group F, dubbed the group of death when assembled in August, is now living up to its billing as Arsenal, Dortmund and Napoli all sit level with six points each.

meaner - October 22nd, 2013 at 3:39 PM

Ramsey first, then Gibbs, the second goal from dort was Gibbs’s fault. He simply didn’t read the game well.

shame old arsenal - October 22nd, 2013 at 3:46 PM

Big fat hairy bollocks…

Nazareth - October 22nd, 2013 at 4:06 PM

SOA. Same old Arsenal. Still liable to the swift counter. The gunners will have plenty of possession and indulge in intricate passing to thread a ball through a packed defence. When it doesn’t work as in the case with top teams,the gunners will find themselves a goal down.
The lack of pace in the attack was obvious and until this changes ,winning the cl will still be a dream.

Nazareth - October 22nd, 2013 at 4:18 PM

I aint surprised the German nad Ramsey were off color.This is a reality check and how Arsenal respond will indicate whether they can challenge for the trophies.
With these two players prominent in the Arsenal attack,teams know thye will have achnace if they stifle them.
With the likes of Chelsea,Mu and Pool coming,the results will show if the gunners can mount a sustained challenge.One loss doesn’t mean the gunners are a bad team.
As said the gunners like to indulge in intricate passing and try to break down a castle.BD showed how to do it with minimal passing and scoring.