Champions League ref admitted he may have cost Arsenal their only shot at glory

Former European referee Terje Hauge has already admitted that he could have spared Jens Lehmann a red card amid the anniversary of Arsenal reaching their only ever Champions League final.

The North London side reached the showpiece final in 2006 following a highly impressive run in the competition under former boss Arsene Wenger. Having progressed from a group that included Ajax, Sparta Prague and Swiss outfit Thun, they continued their journey by finding a way past Real Madrid in the first knockout round, sealing a memorable victory at the Santiago Bernabeu.

The Gunners then overcame Italian giants Juventus before squeezing past Villarreal to reach the final in Paris. Then poised to meet another Spanish side in the form of Barcelona, Arsenal looked set for a testing evening by coming up against a team coached by Frank Rijkaard that had been all-conquering in La Liga.

Things got off to the worst possible start for the North Londoners, though, as Lehmann was sent off for a professional foul on Barca forward Samuel Eto'o. Ludovic Guily then rolled the ball home but referee Hauge elected to send off the Arsenal stopper instead - a decision he later revealed could have been made differently.

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

Are Arsenal's hopes of returning to the Champions League over? Have your say in the comments below.

"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."

In the end, the man advantage ended up costing Arsenal despite the Gunners having taken a shock lead through defender Sol Campbell. Swedish striker Henrik Larsson proved pivotal in Barcelona's victory as he initially teed-up Eto'o for a second-half equaliser.

The Catalans scored again just four minutes later as Larsson and Juliano Belletti exchanged passes with just 10 minutes remaining before the Brazilian fired home to claim the trophy for Barcelona.

The recipient of the early dismissal, Lehmann, has since admitted that he has still not been able to lay to rest the demons of his red card at the Stade de France. Speaking last year to Arsenal's official website, the German said: "No, [it doesn't get easier with time]. 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 Eto'o was. It was the first time I played against him."