The UEFA Champions League final in Paris on wednesday will be the third time Arsenal and FC Barcelona will meet in an official match. The first match was played on September 29, 1999 at the Camp Nou, when dutch coach Louis van Gaal was in charge of the Barca team. Barca and Arsenal drew 1-1 at the Camp Nou. It was the third game in Group B, and Barça took the lead through Luis Enrique in the 16th minute but Nigerian international Kanu equalised just nine minutes before the end of the match.


But FC Barcelona showed a terrific performance in the return match at the scene of Barça's 1992 Champions League final victory on October 19, 1999. 73,000 spectators saw Barça dominating and vastly superior and Barcelona won the match clearly 4-2. Arsenal played their Champions league matches at Wembley that season, because it offered a far greater capacity than their Highbury ground in North London.


Barca player Gabri García is the only member of the current Barca squad who played in the Barcelona team that day. He came on as substitute for Luis Enrique late in the match. Xavi Hernández was also in the squad back then, but did not appear in either match.
Only then 22-year-old French international Thierry Henry, just recently signed from Juventus Turin, Swedish international Freddie Ljunberg and Dutch international triker Dennis Bergkamp are still in the squad. The coach was and still is: Arsène Wenger.


The last Arsenal v Barça match was the "Seaman testimonial" played on May 22, 2002 in honour of the English international keeper's 10th season at the Arsenal. Even this "unofficial" game was won 2-0 by FC Barcelona and

Arsenal´s goalkeeper Seaman did not have the best of nights though losing his testimonial match. Both goal were scored by Alfonso.


So, is this a good sign for Wednesday? We hope that the unbeaten record against Arsenal will hold and that Barca will lift the European trophy on Wednesday night.