The history of English teams in the Champions League / European Cup is a bit of a mixed bag. We’ve seen glory, with the wins of Liverpool, Manchester United and Chelsea. But we’ve also seen underachievement.
Arsene Wenger’s invincible Arsenal side fell short in Europe. As did Guardiola’s Manchester City last season, despite having the league wrapped up by January.
For all the intensity of the Premier League, English sides have regularly come unstuck on the continent. European critics will say that the Premier League is overly physical and that there’s no tactics.
English teams who are used to blitzing their opponents often have no answer when they have been out-thought in Europe.
This year is no different. Manchester City, a contender for the best club side ever, are not shoe ins to win. Liverpool, who have won the league 18 times in England, have never started a domestic season as well as they have this one. They still finished runners up in their Champions League group.
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Manchester City topped their group with 13 points, and are 10/3 to win it all. They have performed better than any other English team in Europe, but still looked vulnerable. Lyon beat them at home and held them to a draw in France. City also had to work hard to beat Hoffenheim away, demonstrating that it’s not as easy to dominate in Europe.
Liverpool, City’s closest challengers and one of the most exciting Premier League teams in recent history, needed a last-day win against Napoli to qualify from their group. Last year’s finalists are 9/1 to win the final in May.
Tottenham qualified against the odds in a group that had Barcelona and Inter Milan in it. If they’re fighting for survival now, how will they cope when their domestic season heats up to a boiling point?
Lastly, Manchester United, a team who should be feared in England and Europe, are not up to it this year. They lost 2 – 1 to Valencia in their final group game to come second in the group. If they had tried to win that match from the start, they would have topped the group, as Juventus also lost on the night. The Red Devils are a long shot at 40/1 to win it.
With sides like Bayern Munich, Barcelona, Real Madrid PSG and Dortmund waiting, it’s going to take an overachievement for a Premier League team to win this year’s Champions League.
