Champions League ref admits he was wrong to send off Arsenal's Jens Lehmann in 2006 final

Ten-man Arsenal were beaten 2-1 by Barcelona in the 2006 Champions League final, but only after Jens Lehmann was given his marching orders - a decision referee Terje Hauge admits he got wrong

Terje Hauge, the referee for Arsenal's 2006 Champions League final defeat to Barcelona, admits that he was wrong to send off Gunners goalkeeper Jens Lehmann in the European showpiece.

Arsene Wenger's side enjoyed a remarkable run to the final that year, escaping a group containing Ajax, Sparta Prague and Swiss side Thun before claiming a memorable win over Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu in the Round of 16. The Gunners then overcame Juventus and Villarreal to set up a mouth-watering encounter with Barcelona in the final at the Stade de France.

However, the North Londoners would soon find the odds stacked against them. Arsenal stopper Lehmann was given his marching orders a mere 18 minutes into the contest after taking out Barcelona striker Samuel Eto'o. Despite Ludovic Guilt immediately rolling the ball in after the incident, match official Hauge ruled out the goal and brandished Lehmann with a red instead - a decision he would later admit to regretting.

Speaking to Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet the day after the final, Hauge revealed: "All in all I'm quite happy with my performance. The match started well, then obviously there was the incident with the sending-off.

"At this point I would have liked to have taken a few more seconds before I made my decision. The ideal thing would have been to wait a few seconds. If I'd done that, I could have given the goal and eventually given a yellow card. Of course everyone wants a goal, so this was a key situation.

"Everything happens quickly on the pitch and for me it looked as if there was physical contact. As well as that it happened in the linesman's working area and I had no reason to doubt him in this instance."

Do you agree with referee Terje Hauge that he was wrong to send Jens Lehmann off? Let us know in the comments section...

Despite their man disadvantage, Arsenal took a surprise lead through Sol Campbell's bullet header shortly before the half-time interval. However, just as it looked as though Wenger's side would pull off the most remarkable of triumphs, Barcelona finally breached the Gunners' resistance.

Substitute Henrik Larsson first laid in Eto'o, who slotted home at the near post on 76 minutes, before setting up Juliano Belletti four minutes later for a Barca winner. To this day, Lehmann admits he is still haunted by the events of that match.

“No, [it doesn’t get easier with time],” the German told the Arsenal ‘In Lockdown’ podcast back in 2020. “You regret it more and more. It was in the spur of the moment and it just happened. It was probably down to the fact that we hadn’t conceded any goals and I just wanted to get going. I should have dropped off a little bit more but I didn’t know how fast [Samuel] Eto’o was. It was the first time I played against him.”