Arsenal take ‘big hit’ as Viggósdóttir caps WCL comeback for Bayern late on | OneFootball

Arsenal needed a performance and a result against a European powerhouse, their form in the Women’s Super League letting them down, but Renée Slegers’s side collapsed, relinquishing a 2-0 advantage and all three points to Bayern Munich far too easily to plunge their Champions League defence into tricky waters.

Slegers called the defeat a “big hit”. The head coach said: “We’re not happy, it’s not good enough, we can’t concede three goals so late in a game against Bayern when we have a 2-0 lead.”

Last season, a battling comeback from 2-1 down to a 3-2 victory against Bayern in their final group game avenged their opening 5-2 defeat by the Bavarian side and kickstarted a phenomenal run to the final. It marked a turning point in their season, demonstrating a mental toughness that carried them to a second Champions League title. Their meltdown here showed they are yet to recapture the spirit that ensured success in May.

More than 400 Arsenal fans had made the trip to Munich, many filing into Hofbräuhaus, the city’s famous beer hall, before the game for their pre-match meet-up, ready to try to outdo the 15,000-strong home crowd.

Daphne van Domselaar, the Arsenal goalkeeper, had said her team had “showed everything we had” in their frustrating 1-1 draw with Chelsea on Saturday.

The aim, though, was to take the energy of that impressive second-half display to Germany with them. In Munich they stuck to the plan and there was no repeat of that sluggish beginning.

They opened on the front foot. Beth Mead was particularly energetic and caused the Bayern full-back Franziska Kett and the midfielder Momoko Tanikawa problems on the right as Arsenal’s high and aggressive pressing reaped its rewards.

It was Mead’s effort that ensured Arsenal took the lead in the fifth minute, the England forward’s shot strangely pushed away, rather than held, by the Bayern goalkeeper, Maria Luisa Grohs. Emily Fox was there to nod the ball back over the keeper and in.

Arsenal’s second goal arrived midway through the half. Bayern’s determination to play out from the back had been risky and was exploited. Mead intercepted Stine Ballisager’s stray pass and laid off the ball to Stina Blackstenius, who poked it towards Mariona Caldentey on the edge of the box. The mercurial midfielder took a touch to alleviate pressure from Tanikawa and lashed past Grohs.

The energy inexplicably lessened in the second half. Arsenal took their foot off the gas, their first-half domination lulling them into a state of complacency.

José Barcala turned to his bench to try to get his team back into the game: the former Chelsea forward Pernille Harder, whose hat‑trick in October 2024 took the game from 2-2 to 5-2, came on and Arianna Caruso and Alara Sehitler arrived soon after. The latter made Arsenal sweat first, flying away on the break and collecting from Klara Bühl before guiding the ball past Van Domselaar.

It was Bayern in the ascendancy and after the deficit was reduced they turned up the pressure on the visitors, sensing they could take something from the game. Predictably, Harder delivered, clipping a looping ball in from the edge of the area to level.

They didn’t just want to take something, though: they wanted it all, and six minutes later they had the lead, Glódis Viggósdóttir turning in at the near post from Bühl’s cross.

“We dominated the first half, the second half was Bayern’s,” Slegers said. “What they start to do, especially after their first goal, they start to play in behind and they start to play a long-ball, second-ball game and they stack numbers high, and we don’t deal with it well enough.”

One win from three Champions League games means Arsenal’s chances of making the top four and earning a quarter-final place automatically are slim and a spot in the February playoffs might also be at risk.

“We need to use these games as fuel,” Slegers said. “We know we need points in the Champions League, so this was a big hit. We have to get back, we will get back.”

Header image: [Photograph: Matthias Schräder/AP]