English Premiership champions Arsenal have a mountain to climb to reach the quarter-finals of the Champions League after German giant Bayern Munich triumphed 3-1 in the first leg of the last sixteen knock-out phase.

Bayern manager Felix Magath claimed Arsenal's defence was brittle before the match and he was proved correct as Bayern were cruising at 3-0 with two goals from Claudio Pizarro and one from Hasan Salihamidzic but Kolo Toure hit back in the 89th minute to limit the damage to a 3-1 defeat and leave Arsenal needing only a 2-0 win in the second leg to take the tie.

"I'm not satisfied," said Magath. "Arsenal are such a good team that they could score three or four goals."

"I don't understand why we let them back into the match when they were already down and out and had lost their desire. We could have made the game safe here by scoring a fourth goal." he added.

Arsenal now need to win by two goals, providing they can keep a clean sheet, in the return leg on March 9 at Highbury.

"I feel we turned in a really bad performance," admitted Arsenal manager Arsene Wenger. "It was our worst peformance in the Champions league and the players are down in the dressing room."

Source: Agencies