© EuroFootball.com
Approaching the Champions League final, eurofootball.com reminds its readers of the past duels between "Arsenal" and "Barcelona" in the most important European club competition.
Barcelona" and "Arsenal" paths in the UEFA Champions League tournament crossed for the first and last time in the 1999-2000 season. Back then, apart from the Catalan club and the Gunners, the group also included Sweden's "AIK Solna" and Italy's "Fiorentina."
The first English and Catalan match took place in Barcelona, watched by 98 thousand fans gathered at the "Nou Camp" stadium. Taking advantage of Patrick Vieira's defensive mistake, and the fact that he juggled the ball in his own penalty area, Luis Enrique put Barcelona ahead. Arsenal's situation worsened when Gilles Grimandi was sent off the field for two yellow cards.
Seeing that the team's attack was faltering, Arsene Wenger replaced Freddie Ljungberg with former Real Madrid forward Davor Suker on the field.
The substitution revitalized the Gunners' attack, and with just nine minutes left until the end of the match, Nwankwo Kanu equalized by redirecting the ball into the goal after it had been unsuccessfully attempted to be caught by goalkeeper Ruud Hesp.
Three weeks later, the teams met at the Arsenal home ground, but not at the "Highbury" stadium. Reconstruction work was taking place at the London club's stadium, so they had to host the Catalans at the legendary "Wembley." Arsenal successfully played their first group match there, defeating the Swedish team "AIK" 3-1.
But the new environment seemed to affect the visitors first. After Luis Enrique's goal and Rivaldo's successful penalty kick, Barcelona surged ahead. Dennis Bergkamp managed to soften the result with a goal just a minute before halftime, but in the second half, Barca left no chances for the London club.
In the 70th minute of the match, the Catalan club was already leading 4-1, with goals in the second half by Luis Figo and Philip Cocu. Towards the end of the match, in the 84th minute, Marc Overmars managed to soften the result, later moving to Barcelona himself.
By the way, in the first matches between these teams in 1999, on the Arsenal bench, Sylvinho, who played for the London club at the time, and the current Arsenal superstar Thierry Henry did not receive the chance to participate. In the second match, the Frenchman replaced N. Kanu and spent the last 15 minutes on the field.
