WHATEVER language they speak and wherever they come from, everyone in football understands what is meant by the Spirit of Istanbul. And, as thunder and lightning roared and cracked over the Stade de France, it not only struck twice but consumed both European Cup finalists.

According to Samuel Eto’o, it inspired Barcelona’s comeback but, if the phrase equates to heroic defiance, it can also be said to have encapsulated the very best of the losers. For the second year running, an English club had graced the biggest stage in continental football with a spirit that refused to die.

Reduced to ten men by Jens Lehmann’s early dismissal, Arsenal showed all of Liverpool’s courage and resolve. It brought them great credit but it could not, quite, secure them the cup.

To see all that hard toil go to waste was a cruel blow for the magnificent Kolo Touré, the daring Emmanuel Eboué, the dogged Gilberto Silva and that most unlikely of goalscorers Sol Campbell, and it might be more than they could bear to lose Thierry Henry. He finished with a loser’s medal but comparisons with Eto’o and the fitfully brilliant Ronaldinho only flattered the superb Frenchman last night.

If he were to leave for Barcelona, he could be sure that he is joining the finest team in Europe — with the trophy to show for it — but he would leave such a gaping hole that even a man of Arsène Wenger’s gifts might find it impossible to plug. Not that much seems beyond this most resourceful of managers.

He transformed a dire season into one that fell only inches short of the most glittering prize and there was no shame in ten exhausted men succumbing to two late goals from Barcelona. The celebrations were understandably delirious from fans who have lived for far too long in Real Madrid’s shadow, but it was a measure of Arsenal’s calibre and character that they, too, were applauded by Barcelona’s fans.

Expectations of a footballing fiesta were so high as to be almost unreachable but there could not have been a single complaint about the lack of drama.

As Lehmann walked off after his red card, it felt as though the spectacle might go with him but, instead, his dismissal enriched a compelling storyline. Little consolation for the German, perhaps, as he became the first player ever sent off in the European Cup final, but he could have no complaints.

His only way out of a red card for hauling down Eto’o in the eighteenth minute was if Terje Hauge had played the advantage and allowed Ludovic Giuly to stroke the ball into an empty net and had then been lenient on Lehmann for the foul. The Frenchman did, indeed, put the ball away but the Norwegian official, as is the habit of too many referees, had blown his whistle with unnecessary haste. He gave himself no option other than to show the red card.

The dismissal was bound to knock Arsenal out of their stride but, as their task grew, they rose to it. Their organisation could never be faulted, which could not always be said for Frank Rijkaard’s team, who, bizarrely, started with Eto’o out on the left flank.

Barcelona had an obsession with flighting balls over Arsenal’s full backs, but if the intention was to push Eboué back, they had not counted on his boldness. The Ivory Coast defender is a work in progress — he committed several bookable offences — but Wenger will want to fine tune rather than eradicate his attacking instincts.

It was his galloping run that led to Arsenal’s goal. His charge ended with a shameless dive but Arsenal were happy to seize every advantage. Any free kick near the Barcelona box is a goalscoring opportunity given the Catalan team’s lack of height and Campbell rose unchallenged to head in.

Barcelona’s response was bound to be as incessant as the rain that fell, and it took Manuel Almunia, without a first-team game since an FA Cup tie in January, to deny them an equaliser before the interval when he pushed Eto’o’s shot on to a post.

The eleventh clean sheet in this competition would be the hardest of all but Wenger was not short of heroic volunteers. Robert Pires had been sacrificed after the dismissal — cruel luck in his last game for the club — but he left ten committed team-mates for whom fatigue was a twelfth opponent.

Henry might even have doubled the lead, his shot saved by Víctor Valdés, but it was the introduction of Henrik Larsson that was to swing the tie. The former Celtic striker was involved in both goals, touching the ball on to Eto’o to shoot past Almunia at one post and then inviting Juliano Belletti’s run and shot at the other.

So the trophy went to the team everyone, rightly, regards as the best in the world. But, after the Nou Camp in 1999 and Istanbul in 2005, the world will appreciate that it is never dull when the English are about.

EURO STAT: Jens Lehmann is the 63rd Arsenal player to be dismissed during Arsène Wenger’s nine-year managership — and the first goalkeeper. Arsenal have lost their past three European finals, two of them in Paris.