As if tonight’s huge Champions League quarter-final meeting with Bayern Munich wasn’t big enough, it’s a landmark night for the club as we head into our 200th game in the competition.
Since making our debut against Lens back in September 1998, we have been involved in some of the most incredible moments in the tournament’s history, and Mikel Arteta will be hoping that this is the year we go one step further than our 2006 side and finally get our hands on the silverware for the first time.
Relive our top 20 moments in our Champions League history
We have won 101 out of our first 199 matches, drawing 43 and tasting defeat in the other 55. Our biggest win was the 7-0 success against Slavia Prague in October 2007, while the three 5-1 losses against Bayern are our heaviest defeats.
This is our 19th season in the competition, and as well as reaching the 2005/06 final, we also made it to the semi-finals in 2008/09, and are now in the quarter-finals for a fifth time.
Tonight will be the 13th time we have faced the Bavarian side, which is by far more than any other club we’ve taken on in the competition’s history, with two more of this season’s quarter-finalists also in the top six most-faced opponents. In total, we have played 60 different teams in our Champions League history – try and name them all in our quiz.
Opponent | Matches |
Bayern Munich | 12 |
Barcelona | 9 |
Borussia Dortmund | 8 |
PSV Eindhoven | 8 |
Porto | 8 |
Olympiakos | 8 |
The two legs with the Munich outfit over the next couple of weeks will also see Germany leapfrog Spain side when it comes to which nations we’ve tackled the most, although that could change again should we continue to progress this term, with Real Madrid, Barcelona and Atletico Madrid still fighting for the trophy.
In total we have gone toe-to-toe with teams from 21 different countries during our Champions League history.
When it comes to individual records, the player to have appeared in most of our 200 matches is Thierry Henry, who has lined up for us in the Champions League on 78 occasions.
Player |
Games |
---|---|
Thierry Henry |
78 |
Theo Walcott |
67 |
Freddie Ljungberg |
65 |
Kolo Toure |
65 |
Robert Pires |
63 |
Cesc Fabregas |
61 |
In terms of goals, we have netted 328 goals in our first 199 matches, conceding 213. And when it comes to our top scorers, it’s no surprise to see our all-time greatest goalscorer on top of the pile once again.
Henry bagged 35 goals in those 78 games, including memorable ones such as the strike that beat Real Madrid in the Bernabeu to help us on our way to the final in Paris.
Player |
Games |
---|---|
Thierry Henry |
35 |
Robin van Persie |
20 |
Theo Walcott |
18 |
Cesc Fabregas |
17 |
Freddie Ljungberg |
14 |
Olivier Giroud |
13 |
For completeness, we also played 10 matches in the European Cup before the Champions League’s creation in 1992, reaching the quarter-finals in 1971/72 and the second round in 1991/92. That leaves us 14th for all-time matches played in Europe’s premier club competition, with only Liverpool (248) and Manchester United (299) above us in terms of English representation.
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