Arsenal in Europe 2005-2006

Semi
final

Quarter
final

Knockout
stage

Final

17/05/06  PARIS   Arsenal   1 - 2

Semi-Finals

19/04/06  H   Arsenal    1 - 0 
25/04/06  A    0 - 0 Arsenal

Arsenal win 1-0 on aggregate

Quarter-Finals

28/03/06  H   Arsenal  2 - 0  
05/04/06  A    0 - 0 Arsenal

Arsenal win 2-0 on aggregate.
The away leg set a new record of 8 consecutive clean sheets in the competition (see Record-breakers page)

Knockout Stage

Last 16

21/02/06  A    0 - 1 Arsenal
08/03/06  H   Arsenal     0 - 0

Arsenal go through 1-0 on aggregate, the UK's only remaining representatives.

Group Stage

final group standings

                    Pld W  D  L  F  A  Pts
[an error occurred while processing this directive] 6  5  1  0 10  2  16 
[an error occurred while processing this directive] 6  3  2  1  9  5  11 
[an error occurred while processing this directive] 6  1  1  4  4  9   4 
[an error occurred while processing this directive] 6  0  2  4  1  8   2

schedule of matches

Date Arsenal's match Other match

Weds 14th Sept Arsenal 2-1 Thun Sparta 1-1 Ajax

Tues 27th Sept Ajax 1-2 Arsenal Thun 1-0 Sparta

Tues 18th Oct Sparta 0-2 Arsenal Ajax 2-0 Thun

Weds 2nd Nov Arsenal 3-0 Sparta Thun 2-4 Ajax

Tues 22nd Nov Thun 0-1 Arsenal Ajax 2-1 Sparta

Weds 7th Dec Arsenal 0-0 Ajax Sparta 0-0 Thun

Format

Like last year, there will only be one group stage.
The winners and runners-up from the initial 8 groups of 4 will go into the hat for the knockout stage.
Presumably, winners will be drawn against runners-up at that stage
The 8 third-placed teams will go into the third round of the UEFA cup.
Clubs from the same country will be kept apart in the first knockout round (last 16), as will teams that were in the same group. Group runners-up will be at home in the first leg.
Following that last 16 round, there will be a draw for all subsequent rounds (ie quarter-finalists will know which other quarter-final their potential semi-final opponents will come from).
From the last 8 onwards, the draw is random (ie no not-same-country or not-same-group stipulations)
The full regulations are available as a pdf download from the UEFA site (Adobe Acrobat reader required)

Player eligibility

UEFA.com's Arsenal page contains a current squad list. It's not clear to me that this list is one of eligible Champs Leageu players, there seems to be too many players. Can anyone work it out? There seem to be 35 and I'm not sure I can see 10 who'd qualify for the 'B' list. Anyway, here are the rules.....

Clubs can register a maximum of 25 players in their "A list".
In addition they can have any number of "B list" registered players, who must must have been born after 1981 and must have been eligible to play for the club for a continuous period of at least 2 years, at some point since their 15th birthday.
To take part in the group stage (and beyond), players have to be registered with UEFA by 1st September (noon CET).
Clubs can register 3 new players for the knockout stage, with a deadline of 2nd February 2004, so long as the total number of players on the A List does not exceed 25 (players can be dropped from that list to make room for the new signings).
A new goalkeeper can be registered at any time, if the club cannot count on having 2 keepers because of long-term injury or illness
No player can play for more than 1 team during the season, in any UEFA competitions.

Determining the placings in group stage

If any number of teams are level on points, their order is decided first by examining the "mini-league" formed by considering only the results between those teams.
There is a common misconception that this method could result in "loops" if there are more than 2 teams involved but this is not the case because the results are put into a table rather than considered pair-wise.
If teams are still level in the mini-league, according to points, goal difference and then away goals scored (note that goals scored is, unusually, skipped), then it goes to overall goal difference and overall goals scored.
It's weird that they skip goals scored in the mini-league, particularly as when it returns to overall stats goals scored comes after goal diffrence, and away goals aren't mentioned at all!

If it's still level the teams are ranked according to their UEFA cofficients at the start of the season

See this newsreel piece for more including transcription of the actual UEFA rules.