Arsenal vs Bayern Munich live updates: Champions League team ...

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We mentioned a bit earlier that Arsenal have been embarrassed in their last three meetings with Bayern.

Fortunately, for the club's fans, this looks a much different prospect under Mikel Arteta and a defeat by such a margin is inconceivable.

Looking at the team now compared to the one that was routed by Bayern, the most striking difference comes in defence where Arsenal now boast one of the best backlines in world football.

The Athletic's Michael Cox looked back at those three matches and noticed one common theme.

Their dependence upon one player: Laurent Koscielny.

You can read the excellent piece below.

GO FURTHER

5-1, 5-1, 5-1 – why Arsenal’s collapses against Bayern were all about Koscielny

And that is exactly what they did.

The first half threatened to go by without a goal at the Allianz Arena but a timely strike from Harry Kane in the 39th minute and one from Thomas Muller in the second minute of stoppage time turned the tie on its head.

Midway through the second half, Kane added a second to put the game beyond Lazio and secure Bayern's safe passage as they showed no signs of relinquishing their advantage.

Onto the quarter-final they marched...

It was an unhappy Valentine's Day for Bayern fans as they were beaten 1-0 by Serie A side Lazio.

Dayot Upamecano gave the Italians a perfect platform for victory as he was sent off for a mistimed tackle in the penalty area in the 67th minute.

Talismanic striker and captain Ciro Immobile stepped up and scored from the spot to give Lazio a priceless first-leg lead.

Although, Bayern had 90 minutes to put it right in front of their own fans in the second leg...

It was an eventful group stage for Bayern as they finished top of Group A.

First up, they beat Manchester United in a 4-3 thriller, then came back from behind to beat FC Copenhagen 2-1 in Denmark and scored two late goals to defeat Galatasaray in Turkey.

Then, Harry Kane's double saw them win 2-1 at home against Galatasaray, and a 0-0 stalemate with Copenhagen was ultimately unimportant as Kingsley Coman's goal in a 1-0 win completed a double over Manchester United, who finished bottom of the group.

This is one of the more frequent match ups in Champions League history as the two teams have met on 12 occasions.

The results are as follows:

History is firmly on the side of the Germans, especially recent history.

All three of their most recent meetings have finished 5-1 to Bayern (more on those later) and they mark Arsenal's heaviest defeats in European competition.

Surely it won't happen again later...

Good question.

On Wednesday, the other two quarter-final first legs take place.

PSG vs Barcelona will be covered here at The Athletic's — so check back in tomorrow for that one.

There are two titanic Champions League clashes today.

At the same time as this game, Real Madrid host Manchester City at the Bernabeu.

Kick-off there is also 8pm BST/3pm ET/12pm PT.

We are also covering that game live and our coverage of that starts at 10am BST/5am ET/2am PT.

Make sure to check that one out too.

...is that Everton have been given a further two-point deduction for a breach of the Premier League’s profitability and sustainability rules (PSR).

The penalty, imposed by an independent commission that the Premier League referred Everton to in January, is the Merseyside club’s second of the campaign and relates to the three-year accounting period ending in the 2022-23 season.

Everton’s latest deduction drops them down a place to 16th in the standings, two points above the relegation zone. Everton were hit with a 10-point penalty in November for a PSR breach relating to the three-year period ending in the 2021-22 season, though that was reduced to six in February.

Read more below.

GO FURTHER

Everton handed two-point deduction for breaching Premier League financial rules

Yes, it's a little bit early in the morning for exclamation marks.

But who cares when there is a feast of Champions League football on the menu for tonight!

Grab yourself a brew and let us take you through all the build-up.

If world-class journalism is something that tickles your fancy, then I have the perfect recommendation for you!

Subscribe to The Athletic now and take advantage of our latest special offer.

Obviously, we'd never encourage you to forego this live blog. But if you also want to watch the match on TV, here's how you can do it.

Capacity: 60,704.

Atmosphere: 8.5/10. It wasn't always that way in recent years.

But boss Mikel Arteta has, like Jurgen Klopp at Liverpool, turned doubters into believers.

They believe they are in with a brilliant shout tonight. And why not?

Hello!

We're now in what is known as the business end of Europe's top continental competition. The group stages are out of the way. The round of 16 has been negotiated.

Now there are just eight teams left. Two of them, Arsenal and Bayern Munich, clash tonight in London.

And The Athletic is covering it all as it happens, right here.