Arteta rues mistakes after draw with Bayern

“This is the Champions League: if you make mistakes, you get punished,” Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta said after watching his side share the spoils with Bayern.

Mikel Arteta felt his Arsenal side were punished for their mistakes in Tuesday’s 2-2 Champions League quarterfinal draw with Bayern Munich.

Having gone ahead early on, Arsenal found themselves trailing 2-1 at the break after Bayern had turned the game around with clinical finishing.

But Arsenal kept their composure in the second half and eventually made it 2-2, leaving everything open ahead of the return leg.

Speaking after the game, Arteta acknowledged that his side’s costly mistakes allowed Bayern to get back into the game.

“We started pretty well, were dominant and didn’t concede anything. We scored a really good goal and, straight after that, it was a different match. We gave the ball to our opponents and they scored, which created some uncertainty. The second goal was also an unusual one for us to concede,” he told TNT Sports.

“This is the Champions League: if you make mistakes, you get punished. We didn’t do a lot of the simple things to our normal standards. We allowed them to have spaces to run and they are very dangerous. But even at 2-1, we were composed, tried to find our rhythm and didn’t try to rush things.”