What is Arsenal's record in UEFA Champions League knockouts? Mikel Arteta's Gunners aiming for strong run

Arsenal’s relationship with the UEFA Champions League knockout rounds has long oscillated between heartbreak and hope, but the 2025 surge to the semifinals—ended only by eventual champions Paris Saint-Germain—has re-energised belief that the trophy might one day call north London home.

It had been 14 years since the Gunners last stood among Europe’s final four. Their 2025 return was sealed by a statement 5-1 aggregate dismissal of 14-time winners Real Madrid, a tie in which Mikel Arteta’s side dominated both legs and reminded the continent of their pedigree. A seven-goal demolition of PSV Eindhoven in the Round-of-16 first leg provided the early notice that this was not the Arsenal of recent second-round stumbles.

Yet the dream died at the hands of PSG. A 1-0 loss at Emirates Stadium, courtesy of an Ousmane Dembele strike, left the tie alive, but goals from Fabian Ruiz and Achraf Hakimi in the French capital rendered Bukayo Saka’s reply academic. PSG marched on to lift the trophy for the first time; Arsenal were left to rue what might have been.

Historical context only sharpens the frustration. Only once have the Gunners reached the final—2006 in Paris, where a man-down 2-1 defeat to Barcelona, sealed by late goals from Samuel Eto’o and Juliano Belletti, remains the closest they have come to continental glory. Prior to 2025, their last semifinal came in 2008-09, when Manchester United’s 4-1 aggregate triumph, inspired by a Cristiano Ronaldo brace at Emirates Stadium, ended the run.

Between that 2009 exit and the 2025 renaissance, Arsenal suffered seven consecutive Round-of-16 eliminations, a stretch that became a symbol of the club’s stagnation on the European stage. Bayern Munich accounted for three of those exits, Barcelona twice, with Monaco and AC Milan also inflicting painful away-goals wounds. Even when the Gunners produced stirring fight-backs—such as the 3-0 second-leg victory over Milan in 2012 or the 2-0 win in Monaco a year later—they fell agonisingly short on aggregate.

The nadir arrived in 2017: a 10-2 humiliation by Bayern, including a pair of 5-1 thrashings that hastened Arsene Wenger’s departure and triggered a six-season absence from the competition altogether.

Arteta’s rebuild has altered the narrative. After edging Porto on penalties in 2024 only to lose 3-2 to Bayern in the quarterfinals, Arsenal topped the 2025 league-phase standings and now open the 2026 knockout route against Bayer Leverkusen as heavy favourites to progress. With attacking fluency, defensive steel and a squad no longer cowed by Europe’s elite, the question is no longer whether the Gunners can escape the last 16, but whether they can go one step further than the heroes of 2006 and finally claim the trophy that has eluded them for 130 years of club history.