Heading into the mid-week Champions League matches, Premier League sides Arsenal and Manchester City had their work cut out for them. Both teams needed multiple goals away from home just to pull even on aggregate.
In what is becoming all too common for English teams in the Champions League, they failed.
Despite an enthusiastic effort in Monaco on Tuesday, Arsenal failed to score the third goal they needed to advance into the final eight of the competition. A similar fate awaited City on Wednesday when they travelled to Camp Nou to face Messi and Barcelona. A sloppy defensive effort by the City backline and a blocked Sergio Aguero penalty kick sent the Sky Blues back to the Etihad without a quarterfinal spot.
The exit of Arsenal and City marks the second time in three seasons where no English clubs have reached the quarterfinals. Since 2011-12 there have been 11 Champions League quarterfinalists from La Liga, six from the Bundesliga, and five from Ligue 1. Coming in last place? Serie A and the Premier League with just three quarterfinalists.
So is the EPL’s absence from the competition just a fluke or is this a concerning downward trend? Let’s take a look.
One factor in the recent decline of English teams is the simple fact that other teams are getting better. We’re living in the golden era of Spanish soccer; Featuring Real Madrid and Barcelona.
Madrid have reached the semi-finals every season for the past four years, including winning the title last year. The “Catalan Giants”, Barcelona, have also been one of the last four teams standing for five of the last six seasons, including winning the Champions League in 2009 and 2011.
The Spanish super clubs have consistently sent English teams out of the competition in recent years. With Man City’s loss to Barca on Wednesday, the Sky Blues became the seventh English side to be dismissed by either Real or FC Barcelona in the past six years.
And you know what? They should be dominating.
With an influx of financial backing in recent years, Barca and Real have secured the world’s two best players; Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo. The two have consistently dominated world soccer in recent years, with at least one of them winning the Ballon d’Or for the past seven seasons.
Could it be a coincidence that Real picked up Ronaldo from English club Manchester United? I think not.
Another concern often brought up is how the EPL’s season cycle combined with the domestic cup schedules wear out the English sides faster. Perhaps the lack of a winter break is a factor, but the schedule was the same when Premier League sides were dominating the Champions League in the mid to late 2000s.
Even though Spanish football does take a winter break, Messi had played more games this season than any of the City players that started on Wednesday night. Another anecdote to debunk the schedule myth is the fact that Chelsea had 11 days without a match before their second leg match against PSG.
Of course, there is always the argument that the Premier League is the best and most competitive domestic league in the world. This might be the best explanation as to why English clubs have fallen off in the Champion’s League lately.
In other domestic leagues, the lack of competition allows the better clubs to focus solely on Champion’s League football. The Premier League demands focus and attention from every single club. Whether its a derby match or a crucial game where points are needed to even stay in the CL spot, EPL games are sometimes taken more seriously than European matches.
Exhibit A: Arsenal losing to Monaco.
This theory is a personal favorite of Chelsea manager Jose Mourinho. “The Special One” spoke about how hard it was to be competitive in both leagues before the Blues fell to PSG over the weekend.
So for all the statistics, economic factors, scheduling concerns, and player development evidence offered by writers and analysts around the world, what is “the problem”? Why aren’t the English sides dominating European football any more?
There isn’t a problem. Soccer is cyclical.
European Cup history will show you that success has been spread around the continent since the earliest competitions. In the 1950s, Real Madrid dominated. Then came Benfica and AC Milan, next thing you know Celtic became the first British team to win the European championship. But don’t forget the Dutch side of PSV Eindhoven and Porto from Portugal who also won championships. There has even been a Romanian club win a European championship.
So without being too blasé, I suggest that it is still too early to read too much into the latest English football “meltdown”. European football is a wheel and success will return to England soon enough.