ON THIS DAY

and 2006 Arsenal's first two European final appearances of the 2000s were both played on the 17th of May and sadly both ended in disappointment. The first of those was the UEFA Cup final played at the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen on 17th May 2000 when Galatasaray provided the opposition. Not a goal in the 90 minutes of normal time and 30 minutes of extra although there were 9 yellow cards and a red card - Gheorghe Hagi of Galatasaray getting his marching orders. And then to penalties and inevitably Arsenal scored just once from their three pens while Galatasaray scored all their four to win 4-1 on penalties to become the first Turkish side to win a European tournament. On 17th May 2006 the Gunners became the first London side to appear in the Champions League final, their opponents being Barcelona at the Stade de France in Paris. The Londoners suffered a major setback when 'keeper Jens Lehmann was sent off after 18 minutes but Sol Campbell did give them the lead late in the first half but Barcelona lifted the trophy with two second-half goals.

Middlesbrough ended a disappointing season with a 2-0 FA Cup final defeat against Chelsea. Chelsea's first goal came from Roberto Di Matteo after just 42 seconds which at the time was the quickest FA Cup final goal - since beaten by Louis Saha for Everton in 2009 (25 seconds). Chelsea's victory saw their manager, Ruud Gullit, become the first foreign manager to lead his team to an FA Cup triumph - now we wonder when there will be another winning team with an English manager! Apart from being beaten in their first FA Cup final the 1996/97 season had also seen Middlesbrough beaten in their first League Cup final (by Leicester) - and they suffered relegation from the Premier League!