A thumping 5-0 away win for Liverpool over Porto, a 4-0 success for Manchester City at Basel and a crucial point for Tottenham against the mighty Juventus, with two priceless away goals, has raised expectations that this could well be the year in which we see an English club truly prosper in the Champions League.
And, given Chelsea and Manchester United are still to contest their first-leg matches, the chances are high that England’s best will go far in 2018.
Even before the round-of-16 ties kicked off this week, the fact that five English teams were in the mix in the knockout stage for the first time ever, perhaps was a lucky omen in itself.
Indeed, in five of the six previous occasions when all English clubs had made it through to the first knockout round – at least one side has gone on to reach the showpiece final.
TIMES ARE CHANGING
Prior to this term, teams from arguably the world’s most competitive league had only progressed beyond the last 16 on four occasions since Chelsea’s famous penalty shoot-out final win against Bayern Munich in 2012.
Indeed, there have only really been two runs of note by English teams in the six years that have passed, with the Stamford Bridge club’s semi-final defeat against Atletico Madrid in 2014 and City’s last-four defeat to Real Madrid two years ago, being the standouts.
The golden period English teams enjoyed between 2005 and 2012, when at least one side made the Champions League final in seven out of the past eight editions of the event, seems a distant memory now.
Chelsea celebrate success in Munich almost six years ago.
Even before that, between 2005 and 2011, it was a rich spell with Liverpool (2005) and United (2008) winning the ultimate prize while they also featured in other finals along with Arsenal (2006), the Red Devils (2009 and 2011), Chelsea (2008) and the Merseysiders (2007).
The lack of a winter break in England has often been used as the chief reason for failure, but still, Premier League clubs can’t moan too much about strength, depth and squad options with some £446m being spent collectively on signings in the recent January transfer window, for example, dwarfing that of La Liga (£250m), Bundesliga (£65m), Ligue 1 (£50m) and Serie A, with a paltry £20m.
THE CASE FOR SUCCESS
Of the English teams left in the draw now, what can we expect?
Liverpool, City and Spurs have made impressive starts in the last-16, and while Chelsea and Manchester United are to come, the collective winning percentage of England’s clubs in the group stage this year was 70% – which had only been bettered twice before in 2013-14 (English clubs: 70.8%) and 2014-15 (Spanish sides: 70.8%).
England has more representatives left then any other nation so, on the law of averages, we should at least expect a trio, if not more, of sides to reach the quarter-finals and then go on from there.
Whilst the record of English teams hasn’t been great, it should be said either Real Madrid or Barcelona have won four of the past five editions of the competition. Given how dominant both Spanish giants have been, that’s perhaps another excuse, should one be needed.
Real Madrid have won three out of the last four Champions League titles.
