The tense Champions League semi-finals between Arsenal and Villarreal in 2006 may have been tight affairs in the goals stakes, but they certainly lacked nothing in drama.
The first leg at Highbury – the last European game to be played at the ground – was like a game of chess. There was plenty of probing from both sides, and Gunners forwards Freddie Ljungberg and Alex Hleb made several forward incursions, but were often stopped in their tracks by a well-marshalled defence. The squirrel which scampered across the pitch at least moved freely, and caused a brief pause in play with the home crowd jokingly singing “sign him up.”
The one incisive moment of the match arrived in the first half, as Kolo Toure nudged the ball into the back of the net amidst a crowd of bodies from a low Hleb cross to put us ahead, but Arsene Wenger’s side, clad in their blackcurrant shirts to mark the final year at Highbury, couldn’t add to the scoreline, as Thierry Henry uncharacteristically snatched at two chances.
Villarreal, coached by Chilean Manuel Pellegrini, were unable to penetrate our own formidable backline, which had conceded only two goals in the group stage. In the knockout phase against European giants Real Madrid and Juventus, our defence remained rock solid, keeping clean sheets in all four fixtures. One more would be required to reach the final.
The return leg at the noisy and compact Estadio de la Ceramica was always likely to be a tense affair. Villarreal – nicknamed the Yellow Submarine – had only reached La Liga in 1998, and in their first Champions League campaign, Pellegrini’s men had edged past Rangers and Inter Milan on away goals in the knockout phase.
In Uruguayan striker Diego Forlan and Argentinian star Juan Roman Riquelme, they boasted two strikers who could potentially cause us trouble, and their counter-attacks throughout the evening were swift and incisive. Both missed gilt-edged chances, as centre-backs Sol Campbell and Philippe Senderos repelled wave after wave of aerial bombardments. In the dying seconds, we still led 1-0 on aggregate, but there would be late drama.
Left-back Gael Clichy was adjudged to have fouled Villarreal striker Jose Mari in the box, which resulted in a penalty taken by Riquelme. The tension was almost unbearable, but fortunately, goalkeeper Jens Lehmann kept his cool, hurling himself to his left to save the spot-kick.
“I’d watched some footage, and just remembered where he had placed his last penalty, and threw myself that way,” Lehmann explained. His heroics not only saw us reach the final in Paris, but set a Champions League record of 10 successive clean sheets, which still stands to this day.
It was a historic achievement, as Arsenal, poised to leave our Highbury home of 93 years, now prepared for battle against a third Spanish team that season – Barcelona – in our first Champions League final.
Read more
Quiz: Every team we’ve met in the Champions League
Copyright 2026 The Arsenal Football Club Limited. Permission to use quotations from this article is granted subject to appropriate credit being given to www.arsenal.com as the source.
