Thrashing harsh on Arsenal - Bayern boss Ancelotti sympathises with Wenger

Carlo Ancelotti felt Bayern Munich's second 5-1 thumping of Arsenal was not a fair reflection of the Premier League side's efforts at Emirates Stadium.

Bayern repeated the scoreline from last month's first leg of the Champions League last-16 tie at Allianz Arena, despite Theo Walcott giving the hosts a deserved half-time lead on the night.

Laurent Koscielny's red card for a foul on Robert Lewandowski – the striker converted the resulting penalty – changed the complexion of the game and Bayern ran riot thereafter.

Arjen Robben and substitute Douglas Costa got on the scoresheet before a late brace from Arturo Vidal added further fuel to the protests outside the ground before kick-off calling for Wenger to stand down.

Even though the long-serving manager is no longer flavour of the month in north London, Ancelotti felt Wenger's side performed creditably before Koscielny was dismissed.

"It was not a crazy game, more difficult. Until the penalty the game was really difficult," he told a post-match news conference.

"Arsenal played really well for 50 minutes, putting a lot of pressure in the game.

"We had difficulty defensively and also with the ball. We did mistakes that we are not used to doing.

"This result doesn't really respect what happened on the pitch because Arsenal played a really good game.

"With 10 men it was really difficult. For us, the penalty took out all the pressure that we had.

"We started to play with one more man and we scored a lot of goals but, honestly, the result does not respect what happened."

Excellent work from my team!! Now let's face the quarter-finals!! @FCBayern #MiaSanMia pic.twitter.com/dzryOnrIFy

— Carlo Ancelotti (@MrAncelotti) March 7, 2017

Ancelotti won the Champions League twice with AC Milan before leading Real Madrid to 'La Decima' – their 10th European title – in 2014.

Asked whether the prospect of becoming the first manager to win the trophy with three different clubs was a motivating factor for him, he added: "Honestly, my motivation is to help this team to be at the top, to stay at the top in Europe. This is the only goal that I have.

"I try to do my best to help the team, to help the players, to give joy to our fans."