By Trevor Huggins
Rueters
Tuesday, December 5, 2000; 5:52 PM

LONDON, Dec 5 – Arsenal squandered home advantage and a two-goal lead against Bayern Munich on Tuesday in a pulsating 2-2 draw in Group C of the Champions League's second stage.

Arsenal, who had won all three of their home games at Highbury in the first stage of the competition, opened the scoring with Thierry Henry after three minutes and were only denied a second by the woodwork in a tense first half.

Nwanwko Kanu made it 2-0 in the 55th minute but the Germans pulled one back in little more than a minute with Michael Tarnat and playmaker Mehmet Scholl curled home a superb free-kick 10 minutes later for the equaliser.

The draw was a further setback for Arsenal, after losing their opening second-stage match 4-1 at Spartak Moscow, but represents another step forward for Bayern after they beat Olympique Lyon 1-0 last time out.

For what turned into a nightmare finish for most of the 35,000 crowd, Arsenal made a dream start—scoring with their first attack of the game after Patrick Vieira won possession inside the Arsenal half and fed the ball wide to fellow Frenchman Robert Pires.

Pires broke down the left flank, Henry leapt into the air as the centre came in and allowed the ball to run to Kanu.

The Nigerian striker returned the favour, threading the ball through for Henry to run in and steer a first-time shot past Oliver Kahn.

Arsenal kept up the pressure with a series of long-distance efforts and a well-worked move involving Henry which nearly saw Fredrik Ljungberg latch on to a dangerous chip into the box.

PENALTY APPEALS

There were appeals from Arsenal for a penalty in the 17th minute when Kanu juggled in a packed area and the ball appeared to strike the arm of Bayern's Swiss defender Ciriaco Sforza.

Arsenal players dashed over to Italian referee Stefano Braschi, to no avail, while Bayern exploited the confusion by sprinting away on the break and being denied a golden scoring opportunity only by a trip by Vieira.

Ljungberg then went on a fine run in the 28th minute, riding three tackles as he surged down the middle towards the Bayern penalty area, before being floored by Sforza, who was booked for the offence.

Kanu skied an angled shot two minutes later after good work by Ljungberg as Arsenal searched for the second goal.

They nearly found it six minutes later when Pires' corner from the right found Tony Adams and the Arsenal skipper's header was nodded onto the post and out by defender Thomas Linke.

However, the hosts were lucky not to concede an equaliser just before the break .

Brazilian striker Giovane Elber failed to get in a clear shot under Adams' challenge but he scrambled the ball into the path of Scholl, whose booming shot flew just wide.

STATIC DEFENSE

Arsenal took up the second half where they left off And were rewarded for their efforts in the 55th minute.

Henry got behind the Bayern defence, cut the ball back for Kanu and the Nigerian's low instep shot from the edge of the area beat Kahn and flew in off the far post.

After waiting more than 50 minutes for a second goal, Arsene Wenger's side managed to squander their lead in little more than a minute when Michael Tarnat pounced on a loose ball in the area and hammered it past a static Arsenal defence.

Arsenal tried to bounce back immediately but were instead suckered by Bayern's second goal of the night.

Scholl stroked his free-kick, taken for a second time after an infringement by Ljungberg in the wall for which he was booked, high into the left-hand corner.