In his early seasons as an Arsenal player, Ray Parlour watched on as the Gunners competed in the 1991/92 European Cup and then won the UEFA Cup Winners’ Cup in 1993/94.
After making his Arsenal debut against Liverpool on January 29, 1992, Ray's continental bow followed some time later against Omonia Nicosia in a 3-1 European Cup Winners’ Cup first round, first leg tie on September 15, 1994. It was the first of 58 European appearances for us, during which time he scored six goals.
One of Ray's greatest nights in an Arsenal shirt saw him score a hat-trick in a 4-2 victory at Werder Bremen in a UEFA Cup quarter-final second leg tie in March 2000, while his first UEFA Champions League goals came during the 2000/01 season in a 4-2 group stage victory at home to Sparta Prague and in a 2-1 triumph over Valencia.
Between 1998 and 2004, Parlour played a total of 32 Champions League matches, which included captaining the side for their famous 5-1 victory over Inter Milan in the San Siro in November 2003.
**First of all, Ray, how fondly do you look back on your experiences of playing in European football for us?**
It was very exciting playing in Europe. Thinking back to my early days at Arsenal especially, playing in Europe was a bit of a step into the unknown. You knew about all the domestic teams from watching _Match Of The Day_ growing up, but you didn’t know that much about overseas teams. You obviously know about the history of the bigger clubs – Real Madrid, Barcelona and the like, but other clubs you might be playing in a European competition, you might not know much about them and you’d probably never have seen them play before.
The atmosphere was something you looked forward to with European matches. You were used to the atmosphere at English grounds but there was something different playing abroad, particularly visiting places like Olympiacos, Panathinaikos, Galatasaray, where it was always very difficult. And there was something different about matches under the lights at Highbury too.
Unless it was a cup match, or the very occasional midweek league match, you didn’t play under the lights that often, so that was unique about Europe too. European matches were always matches that everyone would look forward to.
**Going back to those early days – and did you feel that English clubs had regressed a bit in Europe having been banned between 1985 and 1990 on the back of the Heysel Stadium disaster?**
Not talking specifically about Arsenal but I think there was a struggle for English teams in Europe for a while after the Heysel ban. Playing European football was definitely different than playing domestically. Typically, the old First Division and the early seasons of the Premier League tended to be more hustle and bustle, whereas the continental style was typically slower, and overseas teams would wait for their moments to spring into life in the final third. English teams needed to become more tactically aware to compete.
**We won the Cup Winners’ Cup in 1993/94 but you didn’t register any minutes in the competition that season. Was that something of a bittersweet triumph for you?**
You’re always disappointed when you don’t play. I obviously had my first experience of playing in a cup final the previous season, with the League Cup final victory over Sheffield Wednesday and then I played in the original FA Cup final tie against them too.
So, to miss out on a European final, indeed not to play in Europe that season, was disappointing but you still support the team, the players that are playing and I was obviously delighted for them to win.
**What do you remember of your European debut in Cyprus against Omonia in the Cup Winners’ Cup in September 1994?**
I remember it being a small crowd for the game and playing in a stadium without a roof and with a running track around it. There were a lot of members of the military watching the game. We won 3-1 on the night with Paul Merson scoring twice.
**The 1994/95 Cup Winners’ Cup campaign must have been a real rollercoaster of emotions, thinking specifically about the victory over Sampdoria on penalties in the semi-final and then the defeat to Real Zaragoza in the final…**
David Seaman made some great saves in that shootout against Sampdoria. David was a top-class goalkeeper and you always fancied us to win in penalty shootouts because he was so good at saving penalties. To get a result against an Italian team in that era was fantastic. The Italian teams really knew how to defend and how to grind out a result. But we managed to score five goals against them over the two legs and eventually came out on top.
The final was such a disappointment. We had a couple of really good chances to win it. One of my memories of that game is Martin Keown accidentally headbutting me in the back of the head going up for a header with Gus Poyet. Martin had to go off and I had stitches and went back on. The Nayim goal was a freak - that’s taking nothing away from him, by the way. The game was heading to penalties, he saw Dave off his line and decided to give it a go. He had nothing to lose, it was pot luck and it was a punt that paid off for him big time.
It was a disaster for us, because I thought we were the better team. We were all distraught in the changing room. Funnily enough, Real Zaragoza tried to sign me not long after that game. I didn’t have any interest in going to Spain though, so ultimately I turned them down.
**Did you feel like our chances of doing well in Europe increased once Arsène Wenger became manager in 1996?**
Absolutely. The majority of my experiences playing in Europe came under Arsène. He was a master and he knew every single player around Europe, how each team operated. He was football crazy and watched every game imaginable.
Under Arsène, we would always have a proper team meeting before European games. The attitude was, you should know your domestic opponents. But with European teams, he’d show us videos of our opponents and their strengths and weaknesses. As a group of players, we really felt we could do something in the Champions League under Arsène.
When I think back to the squad of that era, that’s the only regret that we probably have as players, that we couldn’t win the Champions League. We had the capability to win. It must baffle Arsène how he never won it with us… the club obviously got to the final the season after I left and I was really gutted they didn’t win against Barcelona, because I felt Arsène and Arsenal deserved a Champions League victory.
**What do you remember of our debut season in the Champions League in 1998/99?**
We started with a 1-1 draw in Lens. I remember we played well in that game and Marc Overmars put us one up. I had a pretty good game. They equalised very late on, which was a shame as I thought we were good value for the win.
We were in the same group as Dynamo Kyiv that season and they were like a pinball machine, I’ve never seen a team play football like they did. If you look at the possession from that game, I reckon they’d have had about 70%. And up front, Sergei Rebrov and Andriy Shevchenko were some pairing. I can remember us buying Oleg Luzhny on the back of those matches, given how well he did against Overmars.
**What was it like playing home Champions League matches at Wembley Stadium that season and again in 1999/2000?**
Playing at Wembley made things more difficult for us in Europe. Highbury would definitely have been a harder place for the opposition as it was a tight ground and not the sort of venue many European teams were used to playing at.
Highbury was our fortress. There were commercial advantages to the club playing at Wembley and more supporters could get tickets, but I always thought, if I was playing for the opposition, I’d get a lift if I was playing at Wembley. Whereas for us, our main thought was that we weren’t playing at Highbury. So, it felt like a disadvantage.
**One of your best moments in an Arsenal shirt was a hat-trick against Werder Bremen in the UEFA Cup quarter-final in March 2000. Tell us about that night...**
We went to Germany for the second leg, having won 2-0 in the first leg. It was a hostile ground and they were a decent team. The pitch wasn’t the best. But it was one of those nights when everything clicked for us.
Every strike I hit seemed to come off and I also set up Thierry’s goal, so it was a good night for me. My other memory from that night was Thierry getting sent off. I’m not sure if that was his only sending off for Arsenal… I can’t think of another.
**Arsenal reached the UEFA Cup final in 1999/2000. How do you reflect on the final against Galatasaray?**
I can remember marking Gheorghe Hagi in that match. He was getting on a bit by that stage, but you could still see what a good player he was. The game eventually went to penalties… Davor Suker and Patrick Vieira both missed.
I scored the second for us but they scored all theirs. It was another disappointing night… a game we played well in and had lots of chances but, as I said earlier, football’s all about getting the result not whether you play well or not.
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