The 2005-06 champions league was full of surprises. Manchester united were hoping to comfortably top their group however the total opposite happened as they finished bottom of arguably the weakest group in the competition. They struggled to overcome Benfica during the group stage and crashed out of the first round. Eventual finalists, Barcelona and Arsenal topped their groups in emphatic fashion; Arsenal remained unbeaten throughout the group stage. Defending champions, Liverpool progressed to the knockout stage however that was as far as they reached. The tightest group, was the one consisting of Inter Milan, Glasgow Rangers and Artmedia Bratislava, Inter Milan were comfortable winners and Scottish club, Glasgow rangers finished second as they earned a place in the knock out phase. Rangers were brought back down to earth as they crashed out to Spanish outfit, Villarreal in the second round. Barcelona met Chelsea in the second round, in what was a re match of the 2004-05 champions league second round, however on this occasion Barcelona beat Chelsea and entered the quarter finals.
Arsenal met Villarreal in the semi finals and they got off to a sparkling start by defeating them in the first leg, a well played second leg won them a place in the champions league final where they met Barcelona. Arsenal took the lead early on through Sol Campbell, however Barcelona started to create countless opportunities and a Jens Lehmenn foul earned him a red card and Arsenal were down to ten men. The brave ten men of Arsenal could not contain Henrik Larsson and he scored two goals during the second half as Arsenal crashed out in the final 2-1. Barcelona were the winners of the 2006 champions league.