'We paid for our first-leg mistakes'

Theo Walcott and Arsenal left Munich with their heads held high on Wednesday night - but no shortage of regrets.

Goals from Olivier Giroud and Laurent Koscielny shredded the nerves of the Bayern Munich fans in the Allianz Arena but, despite a 2-0 victory for the Gunners, they were knocked out of the Champions League on away goals.

Walcott set up that third-minute opener for Giroud and was left to rue a below-par first-leg display at Emirates Stadium.

"It’s a weird feeling at the moment," he told Arsenal Player. "It’s just so disappointing from the first leg, where a lot mistakes were made and cost us. You can’t do that at the top level.

"But you’ve got to give the guys credit. We went out with pride and worked hard and for each other. We need to do that more often and not leave it so late.

"Bayern are a top-class team. They can always get you on the break and they’re very well organised. I felt we were very well organised too and matched them. It just wasn’t meant to be. The pitch was quite slippery and a lot of decisions didn’t really go our way. That’s football for you.

"We need to bounce back from this and take the positives out of tonight, which there are a lot of. We need to take it to Swansea which isn’t going to be an easy game. Hopefully we can recover well and have a good charge towards the end of the season."

Walcott reserved praise for the travelling Arsenal fans who were loud and clear in the Allianz Arena as their team fought manfully to turn the tie around.

"Our fans are always fantastic," said Walcott. "[There were] 68,000 there tonight, which was great support from both [sets of] fans.

"Our fans definitely stood out and, for me, are without a doubt the best in the world. They were fantastic tonight. They showed their support through the whole game. We want to give them more of that, more wins and more big nights like that. They deserve that and we need to do it for them."