Arsène Wenger’s sad exit from the Champions League against Bayern Munich in March 2017.
Photo: imago/Jan Huebner
Arsène Wenger has been FIFA’s director of global football development for a few years. This is a position that no one needs, but aged dignitaries have to do something. And Wenger is not just anyone. He coached Arsenal FC for 22 years. The grand seigneur from Alsace has won pretty much everything except the biggest title the football circuit has to offer. The handle pot for Europe’s champion is his unfulfilled dream. Seven years ago he said goodbye to the Champions League – in the game against the team that is fighting for a place in the semi-finals against Arsenal this Wednesday. It was a sad farewell in March 2017: The Londoners lost 5-1 at home to FC Bayern and the Times stated: “After one of the worst defeats in the Champions League, the fans are urging Wenger to quit.”
In the scathing comments of those days there was no mention of the contributions Wenger had made to Arsenal’s standing in Europe. Only once in his years in London did he fail to qualify for the premier class: in 1997, at the end of his debut season, when only two Premier League clubs were admitted. Arsenal finished third behind Manchester United and Newcastle, only separated by a worse goal difference. After that, Wenger and Arsenal were always involved. But never at the top. They came close in May 2006 when they faced FC Barcelona in the final.
Circus Europe
Photo: Private
Previously simply the national champions’ cup, today the Champions League: a staged spectacle and football’s money-printing machine. Sven Goldmann looks ahead to the coming matchday.
On the way there, Arsenal first eliminated Real Madrid and Juventus Turin, but the most difficult time was in the semi-final against outsiders FC Villarreal. The 1-0 first leg was the last European Cup game at the traditional Highbury Stadium. In the second leg, the Spaniards could have drawn level in the final minute when Argentinian Juan Roman Riquelme took the penalty and Jens Lehmann’s save foreshadowed what the Argentinians had to suffer a few weeks later in the World Cup quarter-finals in Berlin.
The final was also dominated by the German goalkeeper. However, not quite as he had imagined: after a quarter of an hour, Lehmann knocked down Barcelona’s Samuel Eto’o in front of the penalty area, and Ludovic Giuly kicked the escaping ball into the empty goal. However, the Norwegian referee Terje Hauge did not accept the advantage. He decided on a free kick for FC Barcelona and red for Lehmann. Ten Londoners took the lead shortly before half-time through a header from Sol Campbell, but in the final stages Henrik Larsson scored twice, which Eto’o and Juliano Beletti took advantage of to score the decisive goals for Barcelona.
After the knockout against Munich in March 2017, they had to wait five years in north London until they were able to secure a place in the Champions League again. Under Spanish coach Mikel Arteta, who is supposed to start a tradition at Highbury like the one Arséne Wenger once started. Let’s see what Bayern say about it on Wednesday.
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