Freddie Ljungberg now reveals what his ‘biggest regret’ was at Arsenal

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Former Arsenal winger Freddie Ljungberg became a legendary figure at the club as a key part of the ‘Invincibles’ side, but he does have one major regret.

The former Sweden star is a much-loved figure in North London, having been an iconic player, as well as an assistant and even interim manager at Arsenal over the years.

Ljungberg appeared on Sky Sports’ Monday Night Football last night, as a rare Arsenal representative on the show, and spoke about his side which achieved what no one else did by going undefeated for a whole Premier League season.

Freddie Ljungberg shares major Arsenal regret

Whilst Ljungberg was defiant in his praise for his former teammates throughout the segment on the show, he was asked why a team filled with such quality failed to win the Champions League, and he revealed that this was his biggest regret.

“It’s kind of you to say in one way, but I agree, it’s the biggest regret in my life, I really hate I haven’t won the Champions League and I’m still angry about it to this day,” he told Jamie Carragher.

“When you get older, you meet old players you played against at Real Madrid or Barcelona or whatever and often they say, ‘I can’t believe the team you had and didn’t win the Champions League.’

“I can’t explain why because we had a great team. The only thing that happened when we went to the Champions League final and we changed the system and played 4-3-3, protected the centre a bit more. But then we got a sending off for Jens [Lehmann] after 20 minutes.

“That’s the only change we did in the final, but I can tell you that it still eats at me today. I feel very disappointed but it’s our responsibility as players, we were not good enough, we didn’t do well enough. But when you looked at it, you felt we should win this.”

Arsenal’s near-miss in the Champions League

Ljungberg was part of the Arsenal side which reached the Champions League final in 2006, and took the lead against Barcelona before losing 2-1 in a fateful night in Paris.

The winger stayed in his usual role on the right wing alongside Robert Pires and Thierry Henry, but an early red card to goalkeeper Jens Lehmann meant that Pires was withdrawn.

It also meant that Dennis Bergkamp ended up an unused substitute on what was the legend’s final game in football, and the game could have gone so differently for Arsene Wenger’s side.

Most of the players in that side, Wenger himself and any Arsenal fan who witnessed the defeat, as well as the unlucky Champions League exit in 2004 at the hands of Chelsea, would all agree that failing to win Europe’s biggest competition was the major regret for what was one of the best, if not the best club side in the history of English football.