What The World Was Like the Last Time Arsenal Were in the Champions League Final

What Was The World Like the Last Time Arsenal Were in the Champions League Final?

Well, they finally did it. Despite considerably more than half of the global football fanbase standing against them, Arsenal defied Diego Simeone’s stubborn Atletico Madrid to reach their first Champions League final since 2006 and their first since moving to the Emirates Stadium.

It doesn’t feel like 20 years, does it? For some, that seems like just yesterday, while for others, it may have been completely forgotten altogether; such is the pain of that Barcelona comeback at the Stade de France.

Arsenal vs Barcelona 2006 UCL final was absolute cinema. Arsenal FC shouldn’t be getting noise for not having a UCL if only Jens Lehmann didn’t get that red card. Arsenal were cooking FC Barcelona before that. 11v11 they were the better team and everyone knows it 🔥 https://t.co/XHJUDRpTfi pic.twitter.com/oNaVFRPiTz

— Kevin (@kev712004) April 29, 2026

However, now almost a quarter of a century ago, there is no better time to honour Arsenal’s recent safe passage to the final than to have a look back at what it was like the last time they managed this achievement.

Time Travelling

The world was a very different place in 2006. Though Apple had already released multiple models of the iPod, it was the Blackberry that was the gadget of choice across the world, with its keyboard/screen combo an irresistible pairing for the average commuter.

Tony Blair was in his final year as prime minister of the UK, George W. Bush had just been re-elected as president of the United States, and global politics in general could be considered significantly more stable than today despite various lower-level conflicts across Chad, Sudan, Iraq and Sri Lanka.

Just four months before the final, Team BG had returned from the Winter Olympics in Turin with a solitary silver medal to show for their efforts, while in other sports, Roger Federer had won his fourth straight Wimbledon title, Italy would triumph over France in the 2006 World Cup final, and Fernando Alonso claimed his second consecutive F1 drivers' championship while at Renault, a title which to this day remains his last.

Italy’s successful World Cup campaign resulted in Fabio Cannavaro lifting the Ballon d’Or later that year, a moment which still stands as a significant one, with the Azzurri defender being the last defender to be named as best player on the planet.

Mikel Arteta was still at the height of his playing days while Arsenal suffered heartbreak in France, pulling the strings in Everton’s midfield as he helped David Moyes' men to an 11th-placed finish, while Arsenal secured fourth place by a comfortable eight-point margin to Tottenham.

At the time, Portsmouth, Reading, Blackburn, Middlesbrough, Wigan, Charlton and Watford were just some of the cast members for the Premier League, resulting in a wildly different table from the one we know today – Bolton even managed a seventh-placed finish!

Myles Lewis-Skelly, who started in midfield against Atletico, wasn’t even born when Arsenal took on Barcelona, instead popping into existence in September of that year, while 2006 also saw the births of F1’s teenage superstar Kimi Antonelli and Chelsea starlet Jorrell Hato.

DID YOU KNOW⁉️

Kimi Antonelli is the third driver in F1 HISTORY to get three pole positions in a row after having taken the first 🤯

Senna, Schumacher… Antonelli 🤩 pic.twitter.com/9WWPTqbvV0

— Formula God (@formula1god) May 4, 2026

In terms of popular culture, it was a period of great upheaval and constant shifts in public demand. On the cinema front, the screen debuted Ice Age 2: The Meltdown and Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man’s Chest, and musically, the best-selling album of the year was … wait for it … The High School Musical soundtrack. What a time we lived in, eh?

Electronic games were also advancing quickly at the time, with The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion and Wii Sports going on to become some of the most influential games of all time – it's remarkable to think that the latter is still popular to this day.

SO. MANY. HOURS. 😍

Wii Sports - the ultimate game for family and friends.

Anyone got any stories of this game to share?#mybestsportvideogame: https://t.co/nDbKw0F7tq pic.twitter.com/Ke18XgxnxY

— BBC Sport (@BBCSport) April 27, 2020

Of course, not all nostalgia can be positive – 2006 was also a year which saw us lose Steve Irwin, Chelsea legend Peter Osgood and beloved Die Hard and Breakfast Club actor Paul Gleason, losses that, if anything, further highlight the sheer amount of time that has elapsed since 2006.

20 years on, and the world is so different, but there remains one similarity: Arsenal are back in the final of Europe’s premier continental competition, and though they will naturally be considered obvious underdogs against either Bayern Munich or PSG, they will be a damn sight closer to the trophy than any of their compatriots, an achievement that speaks for itself.

You may not like them, and you may even hate them, but Arsenal are clearly doing something right – closing a 20-year chapter of history is no mean feat, after all.