Arsenal bowed out of the Champions League despite a spirited 1-1 draw against holders Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena.
It was always going to be a tall order for Arsene Wenger’s men after losing the first leg of their last-16 tie 2-0 in London last month.
And so it proved, despite a resilient effort from the Premier League side, who equalised through Lukas Podolski having fallen behind to Bastian Schweinsteiger’s close-range effort early in the second half.
There was late drama when Lukasz Fabianski saved a stoppage-time penalty from Thomas Muller for what looked a soft decision for a challenge by Laurent Koscielny on Arjen Robben.
However, unlike previous campaigns all is not yet lost for the Gunners this season, as they head to Tottenham on Sunday looking to get themselves back in the title race and can look ahead to an FA Cup semi-final against Wigan at Wembley in April.
The first opening arrived on 20 minutes when David Alaba darted down the left and fed Franck Ribery, whose floated cross towards the back post was blasted down and over the bar by Robben.
Arsenal came close to snatching a crucial away goal when Olivier Giroud’s header from a corner was plucked out of the air by Manuel Neuer.
Bayern looked to have made the tie safe when Schweinsteiger converted Franck Ribery’s cross on 55 minutes.
Arsenal, though, produced a quick response to level when Podolski, the former Bayern attacker, crashed the ball in at the near post. Despite a good spell from the visitors it was not enough to pull off an upset.