Welcome to another special European edition of WIITW, where I’ll be looking at Arsenal’s history in the UEFA Cup.

Here’s yesterdays post about Arsenal in other European competitions.

In total, the Gunners have qualified for the UEFA Cup six times. Here’s a look at how we’ve gotten on in the past…

1978-79

The first time Arsenal played in the UEFA Cup was in 1978. The Gunners had finished 5th in the First Division the year before. It was also the first time in six years that Arsenal had qualified for any European competition.

Back then, the UEFA Cup was a straight knockout tournament with no group stage. Arsenal’s first ever UEFA Cup game was on this exact date (13th of September) in 1978 and, just like this season’s Europa League campaign, it began with a match against German opposition.

Arsenal faced Lokomotiv Leipzig over two legs and progressed with relative ease. After a 3-0 win at Highbury, the Gunners were 4-1 winners in the second leg and advanced 7-1 on aggregate. Frank Stapleton scored two goals in each leg.

In the second round, Arsenal went up against Yugoslavian/Croatian side Hadjuk Split. It was a much tighter affair than the previous round for Arsenal but they prevailed and went through on away goals after the tie finished 2-2 – an away goal in the first leg proving to be crucial.

The third round saw Arsenal drawn to play a side that we’ll be facing again this year in the Europa League, Red Star Belgrade (Crvena Zvezda). Hopefully, it will go a bit better this time around – Arsenal were beaten 2-1 on aggregate. Red Star secured the win with a late goal in the second leg at Highbury. It was scored by Dusan Savic, whose son Vujadin is in the current Red Star squad. Arsenal were eliminated, Red Star went all the way to the Final but lost to Borussia Monchengladbach over two legs.

1981-82 & 1982-83

Arsenal returned to the UEFA Cup after finishing third in the English First Division in 1981.

The Gunners faced Panathinaikos in the first round, winning the tie 3-0. The first leg finished 2-0 to Arsenal in Greece. One of the Arsenal scorers that night was Raphael Meade, making his full debut for the club. His name may ring a bell to some of you. In December 2012, Jernade Meade made his first senior start for Arsenal away to Olympiacos in Greece. Now, according to Raphael’s wiki, Jernade is his son. But I can’t find much evidence of that anywhere else. I’d imagine it would have been mentioned somewhere in the match reports for Jernade’s debut against Olympiacos if it were true. So they may not be father and son, but they are both still Meade’s who represented Arsenal and made their debuts in European matches in Greece some 30 years apart.

Arsenal went on to the second round and went up against Belgian side FC Winterslag – though you may know them better by their current name of KRC Genk. Despite winning the second leg 2-1 at Highbury, Arsenal went out on away goals after the tie finished 2-2.

UEFA Cup football came the following season for Arsenal but it ended up being an even shorter adventure this time around. The Gunners faced Spartak Moscow in the first round.

The first leg didn’t go too badly. A 3-2 defeat in Russia at least meant Arsenal took a couple of away goals back to London for the return fixture. But it all went wrong in the second leg at Highbury. The Soviet side ran out 5-2 winners and won the tie 8-4 on aggregate. At the time, it equalled the heaviest ever home defeat for an English team in European football. But hey, at least it wasn’t 10-2 right??

1996-97 & 1997-98

It would be 14 years before Arsenal participated in the UEFA Cup again. The Gunners did play in the European Cup and Cup Winners’ Cup in the intervening years but this run also included the time English teams were banned from European football following the Heysel stadium disaster.

It wasn’t exactly a welcome return to the UEFA Cup for Arsenal. They faced Borussia Monchengladbach in the first round and lost 3-2 in both home and away ties. The second leg is notable in that it was one of the final games before Arsene Wenger took over at Highbury. Although not officially announced until the following week, Wenger was in attendance for the second leg and apparently he did “suggest one or two changes at the break”. Didn’t make much of a difference though…

A year later, Wenger got his first official taste of Arsenal in Europe. But it didn’t go much better.

A strong Arsenal side lost 1-0 away to PAOK Salonica in Greece before a 1-1 in the second leg saw the Gunners eliminated in the first round for the second year in a row. It didn’t phase Arsene Wenger too much though. “To be honest, the only European competition that really interests me is the Champions League.” Perhaps it wasn’t too bad we went out early anyway – Arsenal went on to win “The Double” and a first Premier League title that season.

1999-00

The most recent UEFA Cup run for Arsenal was also the only time we’ve entered the competition following elimination from the Champions League. After finishing third in the group behind Barcelona and Fiorentina, Arsenal failed to reach the second group stage and dropped into the UEFA Cup at the 3rd round.

Arsenal began their UEFA Cup run with a 3-0 win over Nantes at Highbury. A 3-3 draw in the second leg saw Arsenal ease into the next round.

Round four put Arsenal up against Deportivo La Coruna. A thumping 5-1 home win in the first leg put Arsenal in control. A 2-1 defeat in the second leg was elementary as the Gunners once again progressed with a 6-3 aggregate victory.

German side Werder Bremen were the quarter-final opponents. They provided little contest for Arsenal as Wenger’s side hit six goals over two legs for the third round in a row. Ray Parlour scored his first ever hat-trick in a 4-2 second leg win in Bremen.

Arsenal’s semi-final with RC Lens was a bit tighter than their previous matches in the competition. But the Gunners got through to the Final after a 3-1 aggregate victory (1st Leg, 2nd Leg). Two of the players to feature in the tie for Lens were Franck Queudrue and Joseph Desire-Job. Both went on to play in England and both scored for Middlesbrough at Higbury in 2004 – the game in which Arsenal equalled Nottingham Forest’s 42-game unbeaten run.

Arsenal went on to face Galatasaray in the 2000 UEFA Cup Final. Quite fittingly, the match was played in the Parken Stadium in Copenhagen – the same stadium in which Arsenal won the 1994 Cup Winners’ Cup against Parma AND the same city in which Arsenal played their first ever European match against Staevnet way back in 1963. But our trip to the Danish capital wasn’t to be quite as successful this time around.

the same city in which Arsenal played their first ever European match against Staevnet way back in 1963. But our trip to the Danish capital wasn’t to be quite as successful this time around. Galatasaray won the match on penalties after no goals were scored in 120 minutes of action. Both Davor Suker and Patrick Vieira missed penalties for Arsenal. Gheorghe Popescu dispatched the decisive spot-kick for Galatasaray, who became the first Turkish team to win a major UEFA competition.

The match was largely overshadowed by riots before the game. Galatasaray had played Leeds United in the semi-final and two Leeds fans were stabbed to death during a fight between both sets of fans ahead of their clash in Istanbul. The stabbings caused outrage in the UK and members of Arsenal’s hooligan firms wanted to avenge the deaths. They invited members of hooligan firms from other clubs to join them in attacking Galatasaray fans in Copenhagen. It’s reported that members of firms from Leeds, Chelsea, Rangers, Swansea and Cardiff all joined with the Arsenal fans ahead of the Final.

On the day of the Final, there were several violent clashes in Copenhagen. One involved some 500 British fans attacking their Turkish counterparts and causing a riot in the city square. Danish police managed to break it up by using tear gas. The violence didn’t spread to within the stadium during the match but there were some clashes at the airport following the game. In total, 19 people were injured and 60 were arrested. 19 of those arrested were English, while 36 were Turkish. Many of the fans arrested were banned from entering Denmark again and some were banned from attending Euro 2000. Arsenal also banned 37 people involved in the riots from attending matches at Highbury. It was a rather unsavoury end to what had been a decent European run for Arsenal.

And that’s that…

So we’ve been in the UEFA Cup six times before but not since the group stage was introduced. We should be strong enough to win this group, even if we do rotate. The real impact could be on our league form and adapting to playing on a Thursday and then again on a Sunday/Monday. But again, with some rotation, it might not make much of a difference. Time will tell.

I’ll be back tomorrow to preview the Europa League opener with FC Koln.

Thanks for reading!