Arsenal are heading to Budapest for their second Champions League final, two decades after the night in Paris that still hangs over the club. The Champions League Final 2026 brings back the memory of May 2006, when Arsenal led Barcelona 1-0 before losing 2-1 at the Stade de France after Jens Lehmann was sent off in the 18th minute.

Sol Campbell had put Arsenal ahead, but Samuel Eto'o equalised and Juliano Belletti struck four minutes later to turn the final around. Terje Hauge was the referee that night, and the decision to dismiss Lehmann after a collision with Eto'o remains one of the defining flashpoints of Arsenal's modern history. Keith Edelman later said, “We were robbed,” while adding, “The ref shouldn’t have given him a red card.”

The scale of the frustration went beyond one match. David Dein summed up the financial pressure around Arsenal at the time with a line that still echoes inside the club: “Roman Abramovich has parked his tanks on our lawn and is firing £50 notes.” Abramovich had arrived at Chelsea in 2003, and the 2004 Invincibles of Patrick Vieira, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Robert Pires had already made English football history. But by the time Arsenal reached the 2006 final, Vieira had left for Juventus the year before and the club was entering a far harsher period.

Arsenal moved into the Emirates Stadium in August 2006, carrying what one director described as an albatross of a stadium around the club’s neck and £400m of debt. That helped explain why Arsenal had to sell before they could buy as the squad that followed the Invincibles broke up. Thierry Henry left for Barcelona a year after the final, and the years that followed saw Chelsea and, later, Manchester City reshape the financial map of English football after Sheikh Mansour arrived in 2008.

Arsenal still have not won the Champions League, and the trip to Budapest is another chance to end that wait. But for many supporters, the story of this final begins in Paris, where a lead, a red card and a collapse turned a night of hope into a Parisian nightmare that has lasted 20 years.