‘We’ve taken a big step today’

From a Bayern point of view, Wednesday was a thoroughly enjoyable evening, on and off the pitch. “We got better and better thanks to the support of our fans,” said Pep Guardiola, impressed with his team’s display and especially their first-half performance, “now we want to beat Olympiacos and finish top of the group.” Two-goal Thomas Müller commented: “We’ve taken a big step today. If we win our next game, we should be through.”

Reaction to Bayern v Arsenal

Pep Guardiola: “Many congratulations to my team, especially for the first half. We gave away possession too cheaply in the first ten minutes, and that was when Arsenal were very dangerous. But it was easier after the first goal. We got better and better thanks to the support of our fans. Our aim was to control the game in the second half, but we let them get at us too often on the break. That has to improve. But we’ve done it and we’re nearly through. Now we want to beat Olympiacos and finish top of the group.”

Philipp Lahm: “We played better with much more pace, we got down the flanks more and put over more crosses than in the first game. The early goal did us good.”

Thomas Müller:  “We’ve hit our target of winning the game. The was actually a pivotal game for us, otherwise we’d have had a lot of hard work ahead of us in the group. We were very focused and determined. We’ve taken a big step today. If we win our next game, we should be through.”

Arsène Wenger (Arsenal manager): “You have to give credit to Bayern for their quality. On top of that, we made things quite easy for them with our defensive performance. We were extremely poor defensively. We have a chance to qualify. It’s a small chance but a real one. You know you can’t be too negative but you also have to face reality. Our performance was not good enough.”

Per Mertesacker (Arsenal captain): “They scored an early goal. That helped them get into a rhythm. We never got into the game as well as we did in the first leg at home. We couldn’t keep up with Bayern's performance today. We just have to show more courage.”