Bayern Munich outclass Arsenal, Real Madrid cruise past Napoli

Arjen Robben gave early warning of the horror to come when he cut inside from the right and fired into the top corner from range following a move that had involved nine of Bayern’s 11 players.

BAYERN Munich looked primed to progress to the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a 5-1 win over Arsenal, whilst Real Madrid beat Napoli 3-1 in Wednesday’s Round of 16 first-leg fixtures.

The German side didn’t take long to open the scoring as Arjen Robben perfectly executed his trademark goal, cutting inside before unleashing a beauty of a strike from outside the area.

The Gunners restored parity on the half-hour mark as they were awarded a penalty that Alexis Sanchez duly stepped up to take the spot kick – eventually putting it away after the initial take was saved.

With Arsenal harbouring ambitions of taking a positive result to the Emirates Stadium Bayern Munich dashed those hopes in the space on 10 second-half minutes.

Robert Lewandowski scored via his head after connecting with Phillip Lahm’s pinpoint cross in the 53rd minute as Bayern regained the lead.

Thiago then scored in the 56th and 63rd minute, first with a neat finish after Lewandowski’s delicious flicked pass and then via a big deflection from outside of the box.

Bayern put gloss on their performance as Thomas Muller, fresh onto the field as a substitute, applied a cool finish past Ospina.

Meanwhile, Real Madrid recovered from going a goal behind to Napoli as Insigne netted a sublime opener before the 10 minute mark.

Los Blancos levelled not long afterwards through Karim Benzema as the two sides went into the half-time break deadlocked.

Early in the second stanza Toni Kroos gave Real the lead for the first time before Casemiro doubled their lead only a matter of minutes later to make sure his side take a significant advantage to Italy. Kickoff.com