Emmanuel Eboue has reopened one of Arsenal’s oldest European what-ifs, saying the Gunners were “100% sure” they would have won the 2006 Champions League Final if Jens Lehmann had not been sent off early in the game.
Eboue’s remarks come as Arsenal’s run back into the Champions League final conversation — flagged against Paris Saint-Germain in recent coverage — has pushed memories of the 2006 Champions League Final back into view for fans and pundits alike.
He recalled the moment that changed everything: Lehmann was dismissed after 18 minutes for bringing down Samuel Eto'o outside the box at the Stade de France. Ludovic Giuly hit the rebound, but the goal was disallowed because the foul that led to the red card came first. Eboue later quoted the dressing-room mood, saying, "It was hard to get that red card, even before the goal was scored we said to go and play 11 versus 11 because we were 100% sure we would win that game because we were the best."
Arsenal had reached that stage unbeaten in the tournament and had conceded just two goals in 12 games heading into the final. With Sol Campbell heading them ahead in the 37th minute from a Thierry Henry free-kick, Arsenal looked in control before the long, draining spell with ten men: they played over 70 minutes a man down after the red card. Still, Eboue insists the team believed they could close it out. "We were thinking that the time it was 11 against 11 we win that game because Barcelona were scared about us," he said, adding bluntly, "I think if Lehmann wasn't sent off, we win that game."
The match did not end the way Eboue pictured. After Campbell’s header, Samuel Eto'o and Juliano Belletti struck four minutes apart late in the game — with roughly 10 minutes to play — and Barcelona completed a 2-1 comeback. The result left Arsenal’s first appearance in a Champions League final as a defining near-miss for the club, and Eboue’s retelling brings the emotional aftermath back into focus: some Arsenal players were "nearly crying," he said.
Eboue, who started at right-back and matched up with Ronaldinho that night, described the bravado before kickoff. He remembers telling Ronaldinho, "hey Dinho you don't know me, this day, this final is for us" and warning, "you're not going to do anything against me." After the final, Ronaldinho approached Eboue, said "well done," and they swapped shirts — a small, human punctuation to a match that still carries heavy what-ifs.
The friction in Eboue’s account is plain: he insists Arsenal were certain of victory and that Barcelona feared them when it was 11 v 11, yet Barcelona recovered to win while Arsenal were forced to defend with ten men for most of the match. That contradiction — youthful confidence versus the grind of an elite comeback — is what makes his insistence so combustible for supporters revisiting 2006 now.
Eboue’s verdict does more than revive a memory; it locks the 2006 Champions League Final into a narrative Arsenal will drag out whenever Europe’s elite loom again. Whether Arsenal truly would have won with Lehmann between the posts is unresolvable, but his insistence that they were "100% sure" ensures the final remains less a closed chapter than a measuring stick for every future continental run.
