2006/11/01 - Arsenal 0 CSKA Moscow 0 - Champions League Group Stage

Today I'm going back 15 years to 2006 and CSKA Moscow's visit to the Emirates Stadium to play Arsenal in the Champions League. This was my first ever visit to Arsenal's new home in Ashburton Grove, Islington in North London. The Stadium is actually only a few minutes walk from their former home of Highbury which they had vacated the previous May. I have to say that, despite my misgivings about the club, Arsenal's new stadium was magnificent and I instantly bestowed upon it the award of "Best Stadium in the 92" which it retained until Tottenham (of course!) opened their new Stadium in 2019.

Boring, Boring Arsenal! Finishing nil-nil, this match lived up to all my preconceptions of how Arsenal, in a perfect world, would play every week. Annoying and disappointing their own fans at the same time. Annoyingly for me however it rarely seems to be that way and Arsenal have an irritating habit of picking up more trophies that their North London rivals down the years. Ah well. I despise them just the same and will always support ABA (Anybody but Arsenal) when they are playing. Not for me any of that old nonsense about "you should support the British team in Europe" when so few of their players are actually British. I just root for the opposition every time.

CSKA Moscow, on the other hand, are one of those teams that I seem to catch more often that you'd expect. So far I've seen the the Muscovites three times in this country playing against Arsenal (this game), Aston Villa in 2009 and Spurs in 2016. I guess that makes me a fan? Well when they're playing Arsenal, most certainly!

Arsenal had qualified for the Champions League by finishing in fourth place in the Premier League the previous season. This took them to a Champions League 3rd Qualifying Round tie against the Croatian side Dinamo Zagreb which they won comfortably to achieve the Champions League Group Phase yet again. CSKA on the other hand were the Russian Champions for 2005 (their season doesn't straddle the bleak midwinter months for obvious reasons) but, in today's money oriented world, being Russian Champions doesn't secure you an automatic spot in the Champions League Group Phase and CSKA therefore also had to overcome a 3rd Qualifying Round tie against the Slovakian side Ruzomberok, which they did, again comfortably.

In addition to CSKA, Arsenal's Group Phase opposition included FC Porto and Hamburger SV, and the Group could best be described as being "wide open". In the end, Arsenal won the Group with 11 points from FC Porto (also on 11 points but beaten by Arsenal on the head-to-head results between the two teams). CSKA finished third in the Group on eight points and were transferred into that season's UEFA Cup but could also have achieved 11 points and a top two finish had they beaten wooden spoon side Hamburg. Disappointingly for all Arsenal fans (but not for me!), they could not replicate their Champions League Final berth of the previous season and succumbed to the Dutch side PSV Eindhoven in the round of 16.

CRB Match No. 1527