The Premier League is facing a debacle in the Champions League: none of the six English teams have won their first leg of the round of 16, and three of them have even suffered heavy defeats.
12.03.2026, 11:06
12.03.2026, 11:51
SDA
Up to this point in the competition, England had been the dominant nation. All six Premier League teams - no other country had more participants in the competition - reached the round of 16, five of them even without a detour via the play-offs. Now, however, the number of teams could be more than halved.
Only Arsenal and Newcastle will go into next week's second leg without trailing, both having drawn 1-1. While Premier League leaders Arsenal face Leverkusen at home, Newcastle face a difficult task in Barcelona.
The other four teams need to catch up: Liverpool must make up for a 1-0 defeat against Galatasaray, while Tottenham, Manchester City and Chelsea go into the second legs with a three-goal deficit.
City's Real complex
Manchester City in particular had high hopes in the run-up to the game. Opponents Real Madrid had been weakened by injuries and internal squabbles and had often struggled in the domestic championship recently. But there was little sign of that on Wednesday evening - on the contrary. The visitors were literally run over at the Bernabeu, trailing 3-0 at the break and could now fail to beat Real in the European Cup for the third time in a row and the fourth time in the last five years.
"I didn't feel the team played badly, but the result speaks for itself," admitted City coach Pep Guardiola. His team must now try to unite the fans behind them in the second leg next Tuesday and create a good atmosphere despite the difficult starting position. "It will be tough, but you never know in football," said Guardiola, who must now rely on the principle of hope.
Another goalkeeping error by the London team
Chelsea coach Liam Rosenior echoes a similar sentiment. "If you look at the result, it hurts because we were in the game for 75 minutes," he said after the 5-2 defeat to Paris Saint-Germain. The supposed 3:3 equalizer in the 79th minute was disallowed due to an offside shortly after a serious mistake by goalkeeper Filip Jörgensen had led to the French side's third goal. "He's not the first to make mistakes. That's part of football," said Rosenior in defense of his goalkeeper.
The day before, Antonin Kinsky had experienced an even darker evening with Tottenham and had already been substituted after conceding three goals within 17 minutes. Since then, however, criticism has mainly been directed at Tottenham coach Igor Tudor, who had opted for the nominal number two in order to focus on the Premier League, where relegation is looming. Kinsky, who had only made two appearances in the League Cup this season, was initially thrown in at the deep end and then punished with an early substitution.
Almost all top 8 teams struggling
In general, the teams that finished the league phase in the top 8 and thus skipped the play-offs had a meagre result. Sporting Lisbon, for example, went down 3-0 at surprise team Bodö/Glimt and are on the brink of elimination. Only Bayern Munich celebrated an away win, which was all the more emphatic with a 6:1 victory at Atalanta Bergamo. Italy are therefore unlikely to be represented in the quarter-finals of the top flight.
The last time there was a round of the last eight in the Champions League without English participation was eleven years ago. The Premier League teams will try to avert a total debacle. However, the starting position is extremely tricky for the previously dominant football nation.
