Bayern Munich reflect on deserved Champions League loss to Arsenal: “They have a good coach!” | OneFootball

Bayern Munich’s first loss of the 2025/26 cycle felt very much deserved from the perspective of all those involved with the Bundesliga club. Manuel Neuer, Joshua Kimmich, and Max Eberl all took their turns voicing accountability for the defeat in the mixed zone. Later, at the post-match press conference, head coach Vincent Kompany chalked the loss up to Arsenal’s superior game-management. 

The topic of set-pieces, justly enough, had to be brought up again. Bayern’s last four goals in the Bundesliga (against Union Berlin and SC Freiburg) came off of dead balls. Arsenal scored the opening goal off a corner last night. The third (3-1) came courtesy of a very poor decision from Neuer to rush out of his net. 

“I found myself in a suboptimal position,” Neuer said when commenting on his culpability on the third Arsenal goal. “When one falls behind, one has to take risks. I rushed out in order to try and prevent a goal. The pass was good and he [Gabriel Martinelli] scored.“

“In open play, they supplied chaos that we couldn’t defend against,” Eberl said. “And [from dead balls], it’s no coincidence that they’ve scored over 50 percent of their goals over the past two years from set pieces. They’re unbelievably strong in that area and one sees that they have a good coach.”

“We allowed them too many set-piece situations,” Kimmich added. “The big problem today was the marking off corners. For us, the whole game came down to set-pieces. Corners, free-kicks, and even throw-ins. Things can get dangerous against a team that lives for such situations.“

“They’ve [Mikel Arteta] and Arsenal have been together for six-and-a-half years,” Kompany said at the presser. “They’ve fought and banded together in tough situations. Today we only needed one ball. The ball boys [on the sidelines] didn’t have much to do.“

GGFN | Peter Weis