Their European adventure began at Highbury in the group stage against Swiss Side FC Thun. Gilberto Silva broke the deadlock six minutes into the second half to give The Gunners the lead following a close and difficult first half that saw Robert Van Persie sent off. After Nelson Ferreira’s extremely frustrating equalizer in the 53rd minute made it 1-1, this was canceled a few moments later. A 2-1 victory was secured thanks to a goal by Dennis Bergkamp in the 92nd minute that had everyone “walking along, singing a song, walking in a Bergkamp wonderland!” The Gunners, however, managed to sneak in the winner in the final minutes of added time with a little inner toughness and drive.

The Wenger lads’ next trip was to Amsterdam to play Ajax, the four-time Champions League and European Cup winners. Freddie Ljungberg set everything in motion very quickly, giving Arsenal a much-needed lead after just two tҺrilling minutes of play. Nils Rosenburg gave the Dutch team a late rally, but it was too little, as Arsenal would prevail 2-1. The Gunners maintained their lead until Robert Pires doubled it with a penalty kιck late in the game.

The gu𝚗s of Arsenal were directed toward Prague, where the arrival of the North Londoners would be greeted by less than 13,000 spectators at the Generali Arena. With two goals, one on either side of the halftime siren, Thierry Henry would go on to seal The Gunners’ 2-0 victory over Sparta Prague.

At Highbury, a more sizable assembly of little more than 35,000 spectators awaited the Eastern Europeans. Henry gave Arsenal the lead shortly after the 20-minute mark, and a youthful Van Persie scored twice in the last 10 minutes of play to seal the Gunners’ 3-0 victory.

At the Stade de Suisse, it was far from a thrashing at FC Thun, where Pires’ late penalty stop once more gave the Gunners a narrow victory and three points.

Wenger’s army was unable to break the deadlock against Ajax in the decisive group stage encounter, which ended in a 0-0 tie. In spite of this, The Gunners emerged victorious in Group B with 16 points, five more than their overnight opponents, and qualified for the European knockout stages.

Real Madrid, the most successful team in Europe at the time, had already won nine Champions League titles at that point in history before eventually securing their current 14. Arsenal faced them in the round of 16.

Henry scored the game’s lone goal to give Arsenal a 1-0 lead over the Spanish team in the first leg, becoming Arsenal the first English team to defeat Read Madrid at the Estadio Santiago Bernabeu. This would be sufficient to end the match, which ended in a 0-0 draw in North London, where The Gunners had barely earned a trip to the quarterfinals.

After the first round of the toss-up was completed at Highbury, where the home crowd finally witnessed some goals in the tournament’s knockout stage, Juventus was drawn out of the hat for the quarterfinals. Five minutes before halftime, Cesc Fabregas gave Arsenal the lead. He would subsequently sаy, “Once a Gooner, always a Gooner,” before moving to Barcelona in 2011. After The Gunners cruised to a 2-0 thumping of Juventus on aggregate in the first ninety minutes, the second half was sealed when Henry struck the target just before the 70th minute. Juventus had held Arsenal to a scoreless draw in Turin.

Arsenal faced Spanish team Villareal in the semi-finals; Pires eventually decided to join the team after Arsenal was soundly defeated in both legs in May.  Little did he know at the time, but with minutes remaining before halftime in the first game, Kolo Toure hammered home Alex Hleb’s low cross from close range, propelling The Gunners into their first Champions League final of the season. The two teams would bаttle it out for a 0-0 draw in the away game at the Estadio de la Ceramica after Arsenal had defeated The Yellow Submarines (the nickname of the visiting team) 1-0.

With around 80,000 spectators expected for the Paris final, Arsenal’s only choice was to get ready for a lackluster Barcelona team that hadn’t won the European Cup since 1992, 14 years prior. Sol Campbell nodded the ball into the net from a close range free kιck after 37 minutes to give an Arsenal team that had been in control but had failed to take advantage of any of its chances the lead. A late mistake by Arsenal cost them dearly in the second half of the game, allowing Samue Eto’o of Barcelona to equalize from inside the box, 1-1. The game was turned on its head by the Catalan team in the 81st minute when Juliano Belletti sent the ball between goalkeeper Almunia’s legs. Almunia was unable to close them in time, allowing Barcelona to win 2-1 over The Gunners and capture the Champions League trophy.

Before or after May 17, 2006, Arsenal have never been this close to taking home the greatest prize in Europe’s history.