LONDON: Arsenal were humiliated in front of their own fans as they crashed for a second time by 5-1 to Bayern Munich and vanished from the Champions League at the second round stage for the seventh year in a row.

Like Bayern holders Real Madrid also staged a repeat victory, in their case by 3-1, to see off Napoli in Italy.

Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger blamed Greek referee Tasos Sidiropoulos for helping Bayern’s Bundesliga champions record the same scoreline as their first-leg demolition at the Allianz Arena thanks to goals from Robert Lewandowski, Arjen Robben, Douglas Costa and a brace from Arturo Vidal.

Wenger’s anger stemmed from the dismissal of defender Laurent Koscielny early in the second half.

After Arsenal were denied what seemed to be a clear-cut penalty for a foul on Theo Walcott in the first half, Sidiropoulos sent off the France international after originally showing the Gunners skipper a yellow card.

Decision change

He altered his decision and dismissed Koscielny after a conversation with the assistant referee behind the goal.

Wenger said: “When you see the importance of the games and you see an attitude like that I am absolutely revolted and sorry for people who come and pay a lot of money to watch this kind of game.

“Personally I would say we put Bayern under pressure but we were unlucky tonight because it was 100 per cent a penalty in the first half on Walcott, check on the television. In the second half, the referee killed the game.

“After that it was very difficult but the referee was very, very powerful in the game tonight. Lewandowski was offside, not only was it not a penalty but he was offside, on top of that he (Sidiropoulos) gives a penalty and on top of that he gives a red card that killed us completely.

“Overall, I must say Bayern, they are a good side, but tonight they can as well say thank you to the decisions of the referee in the second half.”

Wenger refused to discuss his long-term future at the Emirates as talk of his possible exit from the club intensifies with pre-match protests consisting of a march by around 200 supporters from the club’s old Highbury home.

Madrid march on

Real Madrid weathered an early storm before easing through to the quarter-finals of the Champions League with a 3-1 victory over Napoli which gave them a 6-2 win on aggregate.

Trailing 3-1 from the first leg, Napoli threw everything they had at the reigning champions in an electrifying early spell, and took a deserved lead through Dries Mertens midway through the first half.

But after Cristiano Ronaldo struck a post before the break, Sergio Ramos scored twice in the space of six second-half minutes to turn the tie on its head, with Alvaro Morata adding a final flourish at the end.

Napoli appeared full of belief in the first half as they kept a Madrid side featuring Ronaldo, Gareth Bale and Karim Benzema on the back foot. There were early chances for Mertens, Marek Hamsik and Lorenzo Insigne before the deadlock was broken.

The goal came in the 24th minute as Hamsik’s early pass picked out the run of Mertens down the left and the Belgian fired a shot low across goal and in off the post.

That only whipped up the atmosphere at the Stadio San Paolo further but Madrid were quick to counter, going close to levelling the scores when Ronaldo’s run split the defence and he sent a shot against the post in the 29th minute.

Napoli appeared to heed the warning as they reasserted control, with Kalidou Koulibaly heading over and Mertens striking a shot against the outside of the post.

The hosts emerged for the second half full of running once more, but the momentum shifted in the 51st minute when Madrid counter-attacked swiftly and won a corner from which Ramos headed them level.

Napoli had barely had chance to recover before Madrid took the lead, again from a corner. Once more Toni Kroos was the provider as Ramos headed home his eighth goal of the season.

Morata had the final word as he rifled home Madrid’s third of the night and sixth of the tie in stoppage time after Jose Reina failed to hold a Ronaldo shot.

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