All four English teams through to Champions League knockout stages, but how far can they go?
All four English teams have made it to the latter stages of the Champions League with Manchester United and Chelsea topping their groups whilst Manchester City and Arsenal finished runners ups in theirs.
Yes, City who have apparently invested over £500 billion in their team have finally reached the latter stages of the Champions League and Manuel Pelligrini now leads his merry band of overpaid mercenaries into unchartered waters. They finished behind Bayern Munich in their group and if it wasn’t for nobody on City’s staff understanding what how the goal difference rule worked, they could have finished top having beaten Munich 3-2 on Tuesday.
It no longer matters, however, as Arsenal too came second in their extremely tough group and now both face a tricky draw against either Paris Saint-Germain, Real Madrid, Atletico Madrid, Barcelona and Bayern Munich. No easy games there, but if either City or Arsenal want to go far in this year’s Champions League competition than they are going to have to beat Europe’s best, so why not start now?
None of those teams will be easy for City or Arsenal but both teams will be feeling confident; City because of their huge, expensive and talented squad and Arsenal because of their new found love for winning games all the time.
Chelsea and Manchester United (remarkably) finished their groups on top of their respective piles and as a reward they have relatively easier teams to play in the round of 16. Their possible opponents are Bayer Leverkusen, FC Schalke, Olympiakos, AC Milan, Galatasaray and Zenit St Petersburg. Both United and Chelsea will fancy their chances against any of those teams but an away trip to Greece is never easy and Leverkusen are my dark horses for this year’s tournament despite their 5-0 home loss to United in the group stages.
Out of all the English teams, it appears that Chelsea have the best chance of advancing the furthest. Jose Mourinho has enjoyed great success in this competition and Chelsea have a very large and talented squad which is prepared to compete on many different fronts. City will be dangerous, too, as will Arsenal but they face tougher draws. Could David Moyes guide United on a unlikely run in Europe? No.
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