Chris Howie 

It was like a scene from a Spaghetti western. Sundown on a balmy, April night in the Spanish town of Villarreal two men squared off against one another, with their metaphorical pistols in their respective holsters. Poised. Ready for action.

The camera cuts to a tight shot of the furrowed brow of Villarreal’s Juan Roman Riquelme, lip slightly pursed before cutting to Arsenal’s Jens Lehmann – arms outstretched, ready.

An age seemed to pass from when the Argentinian had placed the ball down - onlookers held their hands to their face, unable to watch what was about to unfold. A tumbleweed blowing across the six-yard box wouldn’t have looked out of place. 

To say there was a lot riding on the penalty would have been an understatement. Back in 2006, this was the first time Arsenal had got to the semi-final of the Champions League in their history and was the first time that Villarreal had been in the Champions League altogether. As a result, both had relinquished very little ground in nearly 180 minutes of incredibly tense football.

However, it was during the first leg encounter at Highbury two weeks prior, that the yellow blood of Villarreal had been first drawn. For Arsenal, the fact that defender Kolo Toure’s stabbed goal was the difference separating these two proponents of flowing football couldn’t have been more apt. 

For the Gunners at least, their 2005/06 Champions League campaign had been built off of its defence. Injuries to Sol Campbell, Lauren and Ashley Cole had left their defence bare. Meaning that Arsene Wenger was forced to field a makeshift back four of Emmanuel Eboue, Phillippe Senderos and Mathieu Flamini who along with the help of Lehmann, had inexplicably produced a 9 clean sheet run…that was up until the 88th minute of the Semi-Final, second leg at El Madrigal of course. 

With both sides at a deadlock, and with Arsenal leading by 1-0 on aggregate – Villarreal’s exhausted pressure finally eked an opening in the London club’s resolute defence. Jose Mari bought the softest of penalties from Gael Clichy gifting Villarreal the lifeline their dogged display merited and a chance to take the tie to extra time. 

There were potentially other candidates for the biggest spot-kick in Villarreal’s history – notably Uruguayan Diego Forlan who with 13 goals in all competitions, had gone some way to rekindle some of the form that had made him coveted by European clubs in years prior.

Forlan still hadn’t become the dominant European striker we came to see during his time at Atletico Madrid and Uruguay in the years to come.  Then there was midfielder Marcos Senna. The Brazilian born, recently naturalised Spanish citizen went on to score 43 goals in his career, with 14 of them being penalties – he clearly had the ability from a dead ball situation.

But again, this was 2006. Even at 30 years of age and two years before he was to help Spain win the 2008 European Championship – he wasn’t the man for the biggest penalty in Villarreal’s history. 

There was only really ever going to be one man for the occasion. ‘El Torero’, Juan Roman Riquelme – who was undergoing a renaissance arc of his own – had been instrumental in getting Manuel Pellegrini’s Villarreal to this stage of European competition.

Scooping personal La Liga’s Don Balon award as well as Marca’s Most Artistic Player in 2005, the midfield maestro, who had been deemed surplus to requirements by Barcelona now had a chance to give his Villarreal side a chance to face his old side and put some personal demons to bed. 

Had Riquelme scored that penalty, onlookers could have reflected that it was the coolness of the Argentinian that made the difference. They would forget that it took an age for him to take the penalty, that he was stood for perhaps a bit too long, that Jens Lehmann was making himself bigger and bigger in the goal.

Hindsight can change everything.  Looking back, as the camera cuts between their faces and rests on Riquelme - where there had once been a steely determination, now there was hesitation. As the midfielder took aim and drew his shot, the German goalkeeper capitalised on the nervous strike and palmed the ball away, before the Arsenal defence beat the ball away into the Spanish night’s sky. 

The whistle went soon afterwards, allowing Arsenal to grab their tenth clean sheet of the Champions League campaign yet, more importantly, robbing the local townspeople of Villarreal their biggest prize – a place in the Champions League final.

Crestfallen, Riquelme could do nothing but bury his face into his shirt, grimacing at what could have been, as the Gunners rode off on metaphorical horses, firing their metaphorical pistols in the air all the while holding their very real spoils of war aloft, for all to see.