Freddie Ljungberg has admitted that he’s still ‘angry’ about not lifting a Champions League during his time at Arsenal.
The Arsenal legend was speaking on Monday Night Football on Sky Sports last night and reflected on his time at Highbury.
Ljungberg scooped two Premier League titles during his spell at Arsenal and was part of the Invincibles side in 2003-04.
The Swedish forward also lifted three FA Cups and one Community Shield. But as brilliant as Arsenal were under Arsene Wenger in the early 2000s, they never managed to win the biggest prize in club football.
Indeed, the Gunners suffered heartache in 2006 as they fell to a 2-1 defeat to Barcelona in the Champions League final.
Wenger’s men were reduced to 10 men early in the first half after Jens Lehmann was shown red. Despite the setback, Arsenal took the lead through Sol Campbell but were eventually undone after goals from Samuel Eto’o and Juliano Belletti.
And over 17 years after a crushing defeat at the Stade de France in Paris, Ljungberg has admitted the final still haunts him.
Ljungberg on what he really ‘hates’ about his time at Arsenal
Speaking on MNF, Jamie Carragher quizzed Ljungberg on why Arsenal never managed to get over the line in Europe, despite their dominance in England at the time.
“The Manchester United team, the Chelsea team, the Man City team now,” the former Liverpool man said. “They have all dominated the Premier League but they won the Champions League.
“Arsenal never. I actually think of some of the great European teams and I can’t think of anyone better than you who hasn’t won a Champions League. Why didn’t you get over the line? Was there a reason or was it just bad luck?”
“It’s kind of you to say – I agree with you,” Ljungberg responded. “It’s my biggest regret in my life.
“I really hate that we haven’t won the Champions League and I’m still angry about it to this day.
“When you get old and you meet the old players you played against, if they are from Madrid or Barcelona, often they say what you said ‘I can’t believe with the team you had, you did not win the Champions League.’
“I can’t explain why because we had a great team. The only thing that happened when we went to the Champions League final and we lost, we changed the system.
“We played 4-3-3 and we protected the centre a bit more. Then we got the sending off of Jens after 20 minutes.
“That’s the only change we did to go to the final. But I can tell you, it still eats at me today.
“I feel very disappointed about it. But it’s our responsibility, it’s us players. We were not good enough and didn’t do well enough. But when you looked at it, we felt like we should win this.”
Have Arsenal ever won the Champions League?
When you look at the talent Wenger had at his disposal during the early 2000s, it’s quite extraordinary that Arsenal didn’t win the Champions League.
The Gunners boasted a complete side, with stars such as Robert Pires, Thierry Henry, Dennis Bergkamp and Ashley Cole, just to name a few.
Yet, you need a certain amount of luck to get over the line in Europe and fortune certainly didn’t favour Arsenal back in 2006.
The North Londoners are yet to get their hands on the Champions League and have only lifted two European honours – the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup in 1970 and the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1994.
How Arsenal can qualify for Champions League knockout stages this week
Arsenal have enjoyed an encouraging start to this year’s Champions League after a long-awaited return to the competition.
They currently sit top of their group and could qualify for the knockout phases this week if they avoid defeat to RC Lens or if PSV lose to Sevilla.
The Gunners faithful will be hopeful Mikel Arteta is the man to end their long wait for European glory.