Arsenal and that night in Paris 15 years ago

Legendary French tactician Arsene Wenger managed to take his Arsenal side to the final of the biggest European club competition in 2006.

The game took place in his homeland and in it's capital, beautiful city of Paris. Unfortunately, Stade de France still remains a bitter memory for the fans of the north London red-and-whites.

In the space of four minutes, Arsenal had seen the trophy snatched from their grasp and Barca players marched up the steps to collected their winner medals.

Thierry Henry (©AFP)

Fifteen years since the Gunners had to fight against that incredible Barca team for the biggest trophy. To make things worse, they had to play 72 minutes of the match a man short.

How do you cope with that? Well, Arsenal coped great - until the last quarter of the match.

Game opened up with the German goalkeeper Jens Lehmann taking down Cameroonian legend Samuel Eto'o in the 18th minute and Norwegian referee Terje Hauge pulled out the red card. Second goalie Spaniard Manuel Almunia had to take his stand between the posts. Even so, English team took the lead in the first half - courtesy of the towering Sol Campbell and his accurate header.

Arsenal's biggest 'mistake' was that they scored too early. Ronaldinho, Carles Puyol, Eto’o - listen to those names. Just playing against such world-class talent is amazing and terrifying at the same time. Defending against them with a man shy - the 'amazing' part disappears.

©AFP

Last 15 minutes of the match came and with them - the crashing of Arsenal's dreams. A crowd of over 79,500 saw Eto'o send the ball under Almunia in the 76th minute and it was hit in the stomach. The energy on the pitch changed completely - Arsenal players lost their intensity and just 4 minutes after Brazilian Juliano Belletti, who came into play in the 71st minute, scored to turn the score completely around.

Wenger and his former striker Thierry Henry once spoke on Sky Sports.

“There are many worst [moments], Thierry”

“Unfortunately, in the career, maybe the Champions League final that we lost. We were 13 minutes away from winning the final.” said the current Global Head of Football at FIFA.

That was also the year when Arsenal left their Highbury Stadium, the place of all of their greatest triumphs including the Invincibles’ unbeaten season in 2003/04. The Gunners then moved to their new and modern 60 billion KSH Emirates Stadium.

Because of the investments in the new venue, the club stood pretty thin financially and they had to be practical with the new signings.

Departures of important players such as Ashley Cole and Robert Pires and signings of Tomas Rosicky, Denilson, William Gallas and Julio Baptista (altogether for 2 billion KSH) meant a change is going to come. And not for the better.

After that Champions League final in 2006, it almost became a routine for Arsenal not to win trophies and for players who leave Emirates to win something straight away with their new club (Emmanuel Adebayor and Samir Nasri - Manchester City, Cesc Fabregas - Barcelona, Robin van Persie - Manchester United)

It seemed like Arsenal were simply existing, without achieving anything tangible. Pretty regularly, Gunners were fourth in the Premier League and were almost always kicked out in the last-16 knockout round of the Champions League.

Arsenal's strong African midfield in addition to the powerful African attack?

Arsenal finally got their chance to lift silverware again - it was in 2013/14 FA Cup final against Hull City. And it did not start good.

Tigers had a 2-0 lead after only eight minutes. However, Barcelona are not Hull and Arsenal turned it all the way around with goals by Santi Cazorla, Lauren Koscielny and Aaron Ramsey.

Arsenal's nine-year trophy drought was over but their soul-searching continues to this day. Gunners fail to find consistency season after season and it does not look like the plans of Mikel Arteta will bring anything new.

At least it did not this season - Arsenal will not participate in European football for the first time after 25 years.