When Arsenal last faced PSG in Champions League
Tonight, Arsenal will be carrying on their campaign in Europe when they face Paris Saint-Germain in the Champions League at the Emirates.
The last time the two hit it off competitively speaking was almost a decade ago during the 2016/17 Champions League Group stage. They did play one another in 2018 in pre-season when Unai Emery was in charge which witnessed him ransack his old side 5-1, however there were no crucial points on offer at the end of the friendly.
Moving back to 2016 The Gunners were stopped by Emery’s PSG witnessing the two battle it out for a 2-2 draw.
Edison Cavani slashed the visitors into an early lead which fell short when Olivier Giroud scored from the penalty spot putting Arsenal back into the game before the break conveniently. The match was then turned in Arsenals favour after the hour mark when the ball whacked Marco Verrati before rolling over the line from within the Frenchman’s penalty area. However Arsene Wenger’s Arsenal failed to retain their advantage (“same old Arsenal”) where with 13 minutes left ticking of the clock, future Spurs talisman Lucas Moura levelled the game out with a header which skimmed Alex Iwobi and in past David Ospina’s arms helplessly.
The two had previously drawn 1-1 in France with Arsenal hoping for a certain victory in North London which was never to be after 90 minutes.
After the encounter, when quizzed, Wenger defended his side like he always did: ”I think we have put the intensity into the game and overall I believe we were committed for periods, dominant, but the start of the game was in favour of Paris Saint-Germain.”
He further topped up his praise in regards to his team, declaring: “there’s a special spirit in the squad.”
The North Londoner’s would venture beyond the group stage reaching the round of 16 where they would be knocked out for the seventh time in a row. Bayern Munich obliterated The Gunners 10-2 on aggregate humiliatingly, being the worse score over two legs for an English team in Champions League folklore!
Arsenal would fail to see the day of Champions League action for the next six years disappointingly till 2023.
Liam Harding
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Things were definitely going downhill under Wenger then. Although we qualified for the CL year after year, Arsenal did relatively little when we got there on most occasions – and eventually we couldn’t qualify at all, as the article mentions.
Arsenal’s failure in Europe remains one of the big negatives for the club. Only Arsenal and Sp*rs of the leading EPL clubs have failed to win the CL. Hopefully, we can rectify that in the not-too-distant future although I’m not overly confident we will.