Arsenal 2-0 Bayern Munich: Super-sub Olivier Giroud keeps Gunners' Champions League dream alive

The wonderful thing about dreamers like Arsene Wenger is their steadfast belief that impossible is nothing.

It means that even when you have been beaten by two teams of also-rans and you need to defeat the most in-form team on the planet, blessed with the world's hottest goalscorer and the No 1 keeper on Earth, you are not crippled by any feeling of inferiority.

So when that keeper, Manuel Neuer, suddenly acts like his namesake waiting tables in a Torquay hotel and the crucial first goal is bundled over the line by your substitute striker, Olivier Giroud , you can simply shrug your shoulders and say 'never in doubt'.

And so Arsenal's quest to reach the Champions League knock-out stage for a 16th straight season is

 alive.

Keeper nowhere: Manuel Neuer is stranded from cross

 

Get something on it: Giroud connects with his face

 

Super-sub: Frenchman finishes off crucial goal

The focus which Wenger admitted had been absent against Dinamo Zagreb and Olympiacos was laser-like as Bayern Munich 's perfect start to the season was punctured.

Arsenal may still need to garner a point from the return match at the Allianz Arena in a fortnight but there will be no shortage of confidence after this life-saver - sealed by Mesut Ozil 's late second.

Petr Cech was kept busy by Robert Lewandowski & Co for sure. Bayern weaved more than 600 passes around the turf which Arsenal's usually dominate - but this was no fluke.

Action Images via Reuters / Tony O'Brien

Cech this out: Arturo Vidal is denied by Gunners keeper

While Arsenal's season had been a mixture of flattery and deception until this point, Bayern had been remorseless - 12 wins on the spin and this, as the matchday programme pointed out optimistically, in the middle of an 'injury crisis'.

Bayern's team bus was involved in a prang with a car on the way from the hotel - the car coming off worse. It seemed as though everything in the path of the German champions ends up flattened.

Lewandowski arrived in a patch as purple as Prince's rain or Hendrix's haze - 22 goals this season, 15 in his last seven, including five in nine minutes - the sort of stats which should not be collated by Interpol rather Opta. A murderous rampage.

 

On fire: But Lewandowski didn't notch for once at Emirates

And within 30 seconds, the prolific Pole was leaving a vapour trail of Arsenal defenders as he swerved his way into the box only to lose control.

Yet Neuer turned out to be the busier keeper in the first half - Arsenal's A-listers combining to good effect when Alexis Sanchez charged forward and squared for Ozil, whose shot was beaten away by the Bayern No 1.

Thiago Alcantara played a velvety one-two with Thomas Muller and had a first-time shot pushed out by Petr Cech.

But after an ominous start from Bayern, we were reminded that invincibility is only ever an illusion.

Arturo Vidal looked more interested in rolling about in mock agony, Xabi Alonso's deep-lying pinging routine began to lose its accuracy and Arsenal started to break with purpose, with Theo Walcott to the fore.

 

Man in form: Walcott evades Alonso

When the Englishman went on a jinking jaunt, swivelling around David Alaba in the process, belief surged through the faithful.

"Hang on, we're in this," they thought. And they were.

After Walcott's shot was deflected over, Sanchez blazed one from the corner.

And 10 minutes before the break, when Nacho Monreal crossed from the left and Walcott headed downwards, a stadium was braced to explode.

But Neuer plunged to his left and saved with a conjurer's sleight of hand - Aaron Ramsey only able to shoot across the face of goal from the rebound.

Wonder save: Neuer somehow saves from Walcott

It was a momentum stopper. Douglas Costa seized on a sloppy Sanchez pass and fired over, then repeated the trick after the break.

Lewandowski, who had been ominously quiet, then forced Cech to tip over.

Ramsey pulled up lame with a hamstring problem and when Bayern broke, Cech rushed off his line to thwart Lewandowski, deflecting his effort over the bar.

 

We're Gunner do it: Giroud celebrates with Alexis Sanchez and Alex Oxlade Chamberlain

But after Walcott was replaced by Giroud and Cazorla lumped a hopeful free-kick into the Bayern box, Neuer flapped as he challenged Laurent Koscielny and missed the ball completely, allowing Giroud to force over the line using his face and his arm.

Wenger is always striving for the perfect goal, and this was as far away as you can get, but nobody cared.

And when Ozil turned in a Hector Bellerin cross in injury-time, the extra official spotting that Neuer had failed to stop it crossing the line, the whole place went ballistic