Gunners out of champions race.

Arsenal fought in vain to reduce the goal deficit between their team and Monaco.
Arsenal narrowly missed out on a Champions
League miracle as their 2-0 win at Monaco was
not enough to prevent them from exiting the
competition on away goals.
Needing a 3-0 victory to guarantee a spot in the
quarter-finals, the Gunners pushed throughout
and finally got the breakthrough shortly before
half-time when Olivier Giroud fired into the roof of
the net.
Though Monaco fought hard to hold them off,
Arsene Wenger's men looked likely to score again
and did so with just over 10 minutes to go,
substitute Aaron Ramsey burying a second when
a disastrous clearance went straight to him after
Theo Walcott hit the post.
Arsenal could not scramble their way to a second,
however, and are left lamenting the first-leg
failure that put them up against it in this game.
Wenger's side have now exited the competition at
the first knockout round in each of the last five
seasons while Monaco progressed to the last
eight for the first time since 2004, when they
went on to reach the final.
Monaco's ultimately successful plan to soak up
wave after wave of Arsenal pressure became
immediately evident, and the visitors' first chance
came as Giroud headed Hector Bellerin's right-
wing cross wide of goal.
As Arsenal continued to press forward, Laurent
Koscielny struck the crossbar from close range
as Monaco failed to deal with a free kick but the
linesman's flag was raised for offside in any
event.
Giroud broke the deadlock nine minutes before
the interval, smashing the ball into the roof of the
net at the second attempt after his initial effort
was smothered by Danijel Subasic.
Arsenal almost had a second two minutes later
but Danny Welbeck's goalbound shot struck a
prone Aymen Abdennour and squirmed wide of
the right-hand post, before Alexis Sanchez tripped
himself up in the penalty area, resulting in a
harsh booking for diving.
In first-half stoppage time, Giroud and then
Welbeck both threatened to double the visitors'
lead as Arsenal went into the break in the
ascendancy.
Arsenal continued to look the more threatening
after the interval and Mesut Ozil saw a free kick
tipped over by Subasic, before fizzing a half-volley
wide from just inside the area.
Arsenal felt they should have had an indirect free
kick when Subasic handled Fabinho's backpass
but the referee deemed the defender's
intervention to have been unintentional.
With 11 minutes remaining, Ramsey gave Arsenal
further hope with a fine right-footed finish. Fellow
substitute Walcott saw his initial shot come back
off the post and, when Layvin Kurzawa's poor
clearance fell straight to Ramsey, the Welshman
rifled a shot low into the bottom-left corner.
As Monaco wobbled, Subasic produced a fine
save to claw out Sanchez's header at the far
post, his crucial intervention sending the hosts
through despite a first defeat on home soil in
Europe this term.
Source: goal.com

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