Petr Cech, the Arsenal goalkeeper, believes two saves he made were turning points in Arsenal’s 2-0 victory over Bayern Munich last night.
Cech said his early stop from Thiago Alcântara, when he played a one-two on the edge of the area, was the most crucial as Bayern would have taken control of the game. He also raced from his line to deny Robert Lewandowski just before Olivier Giroud opened the scoring for Arsenal in the 77th minute.
“I think my two saves were key moments,” Cech said. “I’m pleased with my performance. If Thiago scored early then they would have had control of the game and had an advantage right from the start. And obviously I’m glad I saved from Lewandowski because instead of being 1-0 down, within a few minutes we were 1-0 up. That was probably the decisive moment of the game.
“Whenever they managed to get through our defensive block, I was there in the right spot to help my team-mates and I’m very glad with the turning point in the second-half. It looked like one goal might decide it.
“So I’m glad that we were the team who scored the goal. It’s been a great night and hopefully we can carry on the momentum in the league and rest of the Champions League.”
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Cech also made a good save from Arturo Vidal on 27 minutes before tipping away Douglas Costa’s rasping drive on the stroke of half time.
The Czech’s contribution only served to highlight Arsène Wenger’s costly decision to rest his goalkeeper from the opening Champions League group games.
Arsenal signed Cech for his experience yet Wenger favoured David Ospina in the previous two group games which both ended in defeats. Wenger was heavily criticised when Ospina fumbled a deciding goal over his own line in the 3-2 defeat at home to Olympiacos in the previous game.
Mesut Özil added a second goal at the death to move Arsenal three points behind Bayern who they meet in Munch in two weeks’ time. Bayern are level with Olympiacos at the top of the group.
Cech said Arsenal could not afford to lose more ground if they want to progress to the knockout stage. “We needed three points and now we are back in the game,” he said. “Our position hasn’t changed much because Olympiacos won away but these three points are crucial.
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“Olympiacos have home advantage and we still need more points. But we go to Munich knowing that we can compete with them and we are positive that we can have another game where we get points.”
Arsenal conceded the bulk of the possession to Bayern and played on the counter-attack, a tactic they have also used away from home against the top sides in the Barclays Premier League.
“The key to victory was to keep the discipline and to be organised,” Cech added. “They played really well, they came forward and they controlled the game with good possession. We needed to work as a unit, as one man, and we did that very well.
“For us it was a different type of game because usually we have more possession than our opponents and we control the game. It was them with the possession.
“They really used the ball well, they opened up spaces so we had to be very disciplined and organised, which is not easy at times, but we did remarkably well.”