Former Arsenal goalkeeper David Ospina has admitted the 10-2 defeat to Bayern Munich in the Champions League in 2017 was among the worst of his career.
Ospina spent four years at Arsenal after arriving from Nice in a £3.6m deal back in 2014 before departing for Napoli, first on loan then permanently the following summer, in 2018.
He made 70 appearances for the Gunners in that time, having played a substitute’s role for much of his time with them.
Fourteen of those appearances came in the Champions League, but arguably the most famous was the 10-2 defeat to Bayern in the last 16 stage in 2017.
Trailing 5-1 from the first leg in Germany, the Gunners had been hopeful of overturning the deficit at the Emirates and were on their way to doing so when Theo Walcott opened the scoring in the 20th minute.
However, what followed was complete capitulation as a red card for Laurent Koscielny saw Arsenal fold, conceding another five goals and wracking up the worst defeat suffered by an English side in the history of the competition.
It was a dark night for all concerned, and one Ospina does not remember fondly, even to this day.
“When I arrived at Arsenal, in the first training session on the pitch, we did a reduced five-on-five, Wenger stood next to me,” Marca Colombia quote him as saying.
“It was so fast, the ball wouldn’t stop, with Cazorla, Podolski what he did was pick up the ball inside, and I thought: did I forget to cover or what?
“I said to him (Arsene Wenger), don’t worry, I’ll settle quickly.
“Negatively, I had a game that marked me a lot. It was one of the hardest moments of my career, in Arsenal’s Champions League match against Bayern Munich.”
