English teams are playing this week to avoid a wipeout in the Champions League round of 16, with the reputation of the Premier League at stake.
All six English clubs — a record entry for any country in the competition — failed to win a first-leg game last week and only Premier League leader Arsenal is now clearly favored to advance.
Arsenal hosts Bayer Leverkusen on Tuesday with the teams tied 1-1 and shapes as the most likely to represent Europe’s richest league in the quarterfinals.
A hat trick of three-goal losses — albeit all on the road against high-class opponents — had many commentators using a famous saying credited to Michel Platini about the tiring English season.
English soccer is “lions in the winter, lambs by the spring,” Platini said while UEFA president from 2007-15, quoting a phrase that seems to have come from the former Yugoslavia decades ago.
On Tuesday, Manchester City will start 3-0 down at home to Real Madrid and Chelsea faces a 5-2 deficit against defending champion Paris Saint-Germain.
Tottenham trails 5-2 at home to Atletico Madrid on Wednesday, when Liverpool will hope the aura of its Anfield home can help overcome a 1-0 loss in the first leg at Galatasaray. Newcastle goes to Barcelona tied at 1-1.
In the two games without an English team, the remarkable Norwegian underdog Bodø/Glimt takes a 3-0 lead to Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday and Bayern Munich is up 6-1 hosting Atalanta on Wednesday.
Here’s a look at the round of 16 picture:
Zidane-like Arbeloa
Ten years ago, Real Madrid promoted a former player from within the club in January as a largely untested first-team coach after giving his storied predecessor just a few months until firing him.
It worked out well for Zinedine Zidane. He won that season’s Champions League title — and the next two after that — on replacing Rafa Benitez, who had himself once lifted the trophy with Liverpool.
A decade on, Álvaro Arbeloa is Madrid coach in the same circumstances as Zidane, who he played for just rarely in that 2015-16 season.
Arbeloa passed his biggest coaching test last week against Man City, two months since being the surprise internal choice to replace Xabi Alonso. The latter, another former Madrid star, had been lured last year from a hugely successful job at Leverkusen.
Inspiration for the win against Pep Guardiola’s Man City was captain Fede Valverde, who scored a stunning first-half hat trick thriving in a team that was without injured superstars Kylian Mbappé and Jude Bellingham.
Mbappé is set to return to action from his left knee injury in Manchester, at a stadium where he scored one goal in each of the three times he played there for Monaco, then PSG and Madrid.
Bodø/Glimt’s big stage
Bodø/Glimt should have no fear going to Sporting’s 52,000-seat José Alvalade Stadium that is more than six times bigger than its home stadium.
Coach Kjetil Knutsen’s team already won this year in front of bigger crowds and intense atmospheres at Atletico’s Metropolitano Stadium and the San Siro against Inter Milan.
Glimt’s shocking 2-1 win at Atletico in the last round of league-phase games in January meant squeezing into the 24-team knockout phase placed 23rd in the 36-team standings. A 2-1 win in Milan completed a 5-2 scoreline in the knockout playoffs round in February.
Both teams should be fresh in Lisbon after skipping scheduled domestic league games at the weekend to help them prepare.
The Chelsea Huddle
Before kickoff at Stamford Bridge, many eyes will be on Chelsea’s players to see if they try to do another team huddle around the center spot.
It provoked a bizarre image Saturday when Premier League referee Paul Tierney was encircled by Chelsea huddling before a 1-0 loss to Newcastle. The widespread reaction across English soccer was derision for the huddle and Chelsea coach Liam Rosenior’s claim his players wanted to show “respect for the ball.”
In Paris last week, Chelsea huddled before kickoff in both halves and was booed by PSG fans the second time.
The positioning of Slovenian referee Slavko Vinčić will be keenly watched Tuesday.
Quarterfinals pairings
If Bodø/Glimt goes through then Arsenal or Leverkusen will be next to visit the 8,000-seat Aspmyra Stadium inside the Arctic Circle for the first leg on April 7 or 8.
Real Madrid and Bayern are on course to meet in the knockout phase for the 11th time in the Champions League era that started in 1992.
Despite combining to be European champion 21 times, record 15-time winner Madrid and six-time winner Bayern never met in the final in the competition’s 71-season history. They have clashed in eight semifinals.
Their half of the draw also includes PSG, Chelsea, Liverpool and Galatasaray who will make up one of the quarterfinals.
The other quarterfinal looks likely to see Atletico play Barcelona or Newcastle.
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