They are an English professional football club based in Holloway, North London. The club's first European football match was played against Copenhagen XI. The club played in the UEFA Cup for the first time and won theirs. Club competitions between teams from different European countries date back to 1897, when the Challenge Cup was created for clubs from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, which did not face each other under normal circumstances.
The Sir Thomas Lipton Trophy, named after businessman and athlete Thomas Lipton, was created in 1909 and was played between clubs from Italy, Great Britain, Germany and Switzerland; the competition lasted two years. The first attempt to create a cup for Europe's national champion clubs was made by the Swiss club FC Servette. Founded in 1930, the Coupe des Nations featured clubs from ten of the major European football leagues and was considered a success. For economic reasons, the competition was abandoned.
Arsène Wenger talks about the climate of European football, October 1997 Arsenal participated for the first time in European football during the 1963-64 season, through the Interurban Fairs Cup. The competition was created to promote international trade fairs in European cities, with clubs from cities participating in matches held at trade fairs. As a representative of London, Arsenal was paired with Copenhagen XI in Copenhagen in the first round, played in two games. The first match ended with a 7-1 win for Arsenal, with Geoff Strong and Joe Baker scoring hat-tricks.
Copenhagen XI won the second match 3-2, but lost 9-4 on aggregate. Arsenal faced RFC Liège in the second round; the Belgian club won 4-2 on aggregate to advance to the quarterfinals. Arsenal has never won the Europa League or its predecessor, the UEFA Cup. In addition, they have never won the Champions League.
As Arsenal finished fourth in the league, the following season the club had to play a third qualifying round, against Dinamo Zagreb, in order to participate in the group stage of the Champions League. Valencia has a slightly better chance (48%) than Arsenal of reaching the Europa League final, but that could change if Arsenal manages to close the deal in Naples next Thursday. Arsenal participated for the first time in European football during the 1963-64 season, through the Interurban Fairs Cup. After the Heysel Stadium disaster in 1985, UEFA indefinitely banned all English teams from competing in Europe; the ban was lifted in the 1990-91 season and Arsenal entered the 1991-92 season, giving Arsenal the opportunity to play in the European Cup.
The club's first European football match was played against Copenhagen XI on September 25, 1963, and since then it has participated in European club competitions on several occasions, most of them organized by the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA). After defeating Glentoran from Northern Ireland, Sporting de Lisboa from Portugal and Rouen from France, Arsenal faced Romanian club Dinamo Bacău in the quarterfinals. French forward Thierry Henry holds the club's record for the most games with 89, and is the club's top scorer in European competitions with 42 goals. Arsenal returned to European club football in the 1978-79 season, after finishing fifth in the previous league season.
Wenger had great experience in UEFA club competitions; in Monaco he reached the final of the Cup Winners' Cup in 1992, lost 2-0 to Werder Bremen and led the club to the semifinals of the European Cup in 1993-94. In December 1954, the French sports magazine L'Equipe published an article by journalist and former professional soccer player Gabriel Hanot, which proposed the introduction of a European club competition.
