Five of Arsenal’s greatest European nights

By Duncan Bech, PA

Arsenal delivered one of the greatest European nights in the club’s history by routing Real Madrid 3-0 in the first leg of their Champions League quarter-final on Tuesday.

Here, we look at five other memorable Gunners encounters in continental action.

The first of Arsenal’s two European trophies came in the Inter-Cities Fairs Cup, the precursor to the UEFA Cup.

They won  3-0 in the second leg of the final at Highbury to overcome a 3-1 deficit from the opening encounter.

Goals from Eddie Kelly, John Radford and Jon Sammels secured the club’s first silverware for 17 years.

The Gunners lifted the Cup Winners’ Cup, which was later abolished in 1999, after Alan Smith produced a stunning finish from the edge of the area.

Parma’s star-studded line-up for the showdown in Copenhagen included Tomas Brolin, Faustino Asprilla and Gianfranco Zola.

But they could not break down Arsenal’s famous rearguard marshalled by Tony Adams.

Thierry Henry struck twice as Inter were dismantled at the San Siro.

Arsene Wenger admitted that “not in my wildest dreams could we have predicted that sort of result”.

Freddie Ljungberg, Edu and Robert Pires were also on target in the Champions League group game to avenge their 3-0 defeat to the Italians at Highbury two months earlier.

The Gunners became the first English club to triumph at the Bernabeu after Henry broke the deadlock early in the second half of the last-16 Champions League clash.

Victory came in a period when Real collected superstars for fun, with David Beckham, Ronaldo, Robinho and Zinedine Zidane all starting.

Arsenal eventually lost to Barcelona in the final.

Until Tuesday’s humbling of Real Madrid, this was Arsenal’s greatest European win at the Emirates Stadium.

Barcelona, having taken the lead through David Villa, fell to late goals from Robin van Persie and Andrey Arshavin.

However, the Spanish giants went on to win the second leg of the last-16 clash and the competition.