Champions League: Arsene Wenger complains about red card

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger says the referee "killed the game" after he sent off goalkeeper Wojciech Szczesny during the first leg of their last-16 Champions League loss to Bayern Munich. Italian referee Nicola Rizzoli showed Szczesny a red card after he tripped Arjen Robben inside the penalty area during the first half of Wednesday's 2-0 defeat at Emirates Stadium. "The referee made a decision that killed the game," Wenger said. "Our keeper went for the ball, he touched Robben, who made more of it." Arsenal were lucky as Bayern's David Alaba hit the post from the resulting penalty but the Germans took full advantage of their numerical superiority and scored two goals in the second half through Toni Kroos and Thomas Muller. "Robben has enough experience to know to make more of it," said Wenger. "Overall I thought Bayern made a lot of every single contact. We are not used to that in England. There were fouls given today that usually are not given in the Premier League, but it's different rules and we have to accept it. The game was, until then, top quality, and in the second half it was boring for neutral people. It was one-way traffic." Arsenal had a great start to the game and could have opened the scoring early on through a penalty kick but Mesut Ozil was denied by goalkeeper Manuel Neuer. "I think it affected Mesut. He was still shaking his head five or 10 minutes after that," said Wenger. It had a huge impact on his performance. Confidence is your petrol in the team - it gives you the desire to play." Bayern boss Pep Guardiola agreed that Ozil's penalty miss and Szczesny's sending-off were turning points in Wednesday's match: "Arsenal were much, much better than us in the first 10-15 minutes, but after the mistake from Ozil the game was equal. From that moment we played better and after the red card for the goalkeeper the game was for us. We are so happy because the last two times I came here with Barcelona we played amazing and didn't win, so I know how difficult it is to win here." The return leg takes place in Munich on March 11 and Arsenal are 25/1 at Bet365 to turn things around and qualify while Bayern are 1/100 to achieve qualification.