Two nights, two games, the same scenario in each, score four goals and in either game a completely different result.

This midweek of Champions League matches will belong to FC Barcelona who put an astonishing six passed French champions PSG to overcome not only a four goal deficit but an away goal that should have ended the tie.

Perhaps they were watching the night before on how not to come back from four goals down.

Arsenal's total humiliation at the hands of Bayern Munich on Tuesday night did at one stage threaten to be different.

When Theo Walcott blasted the Gunners in front midway through the first half, Arsenal were the better side and given how quickly all momentum swung away from PSG the day afterward, it's not completely out of the question that the same could befall the German Juggernaut.

However, Arsenal's shambolic collapse in the second half, all to similar to their shambolic collapse at the Allianz Arena weeks previous was all too familiar.

The Gunners were too nice.

Never mind Barcelona's enigmatic front three of Lionel Messi, Neymar and Luis Suarez, there's a mindset that runs deep through the heart of the Camp Nou, win.

Win at all costs.

Neither of the penalties awarded to Barcelona looked certain, the second certainly looked like simulation from Suarez who had already been booked for simulation earlier in the game.

Throughout the game, Barcelona did their best to make the game as uncomfortable as possible for their Parisian guests because unlike Arsenal, they knew they could not win by playing fair, they had to take every advantage humanly possible.

Watching any top team in Europe is like watching an old-school wrestling heel, like watching Ric Flair in his prime, his art of deception, whether it be having a fistful of his opponents tights in a pinfall or had one foot on the ropes for leverage, or exposing the turnbuckle pad to distract the referee, so he could get in a cheeky eye poke.

The crowd hated it and they hated him because he always won, he was always the champion and it was always through undignified means.

Go back and watch the winners of the Champions League of yesteryear, they'll be a game where they did their best to break up play, exploit any advantage, maybe throw themselves to the ground a little easier.

Sure, there'll be a game where they put an opponent to the sword comprehensively and beautifully and that was the same with Flair, he was legitimately the best wrestler in the world but how did he maintain that image when there was any doubt, he exploited every advantage.

Arsenal's motto, Victoria Concordia Crescit translates as Victory Through Harmony in Latin, it's a motto they've taken too literally in Europe for too long.

In the Allianz, there was no making life uncomfortable for Bayern, they didn't close up the game and scratch and claw their way to a respectable score, they withered away.

It's been the same for too long, in the last seven UEFA Champions League Round of 16 exits they've played almost identically in every one, they've never learnt when to turn nasty.

In a perfect world, Arsenal's approach to the second leg would be applauded whilst Barcelona's bemoaned but this isn't a perfect world and the team with the prize and the plaudits is the one well versed in the dark arts.

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About the author
Rob Tonkinson
Arsenal and NY Jets fan and Journalism Graduate.