With no English teams left in Europe this season, we assess what happened to the Premier League elite...
Monday 17 August 2020 16:04, UK
Even in this, the longest and most drawn out of European seasons, life can come at you fast. One year on from the Premier League dominating continental competition by providing all four finalists as Liverpool and Chelsea triumphed in the Champions League and Europa League respectively, not one English club will feature in this year's finals.
All seven representatives were eliminated in the knockout stages. Tottenham, Liverpool, Chelsea and Manchester City bowed out of the Champions League. Arsenal, Wolves and Manchester United departed the Europa League. Many in dramatic circumstances.
Two of the seven sides were eliminated after extra-time. Three more were scuppered by goals going against them in the final 15 minutes of their matches. It was a tough year.
There is a temptation to draw sweeping conclusions in the aftermath. But just as luck played its part in the previous successes, so misfortune has been a factor this season.
Here is a reminder of how each side saw their European run come to an end…
The Gunners had beaten Olympiakos 1-0 in Greece and were firm favourites to progress back at the Emirates Stadium. But Papa Abou Cisse's second-half goal took the game to extra-time and though Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang scored in the 113th minute, there was late heartbreak when Youssef El-Arabi won it for the visitors.
There was still time for Aubameyang to squander a wonderful opportunity to turn the tie around once more with just about the final kick of the game. It was a shocking miss. "It hurts, big time," said Arsenal manager Mikel Arteta after the defeat. "It is a difficult one to digest as a team and as a club. This is football and sometimes it is very cruel."
The German club's subsequent run in the competition might have taken the edge off this defeat but it was a comprehensive one nevertheless. The damage was done in London when Timo Werner's second-half penalty gave Leipzig the advantage, but the second leg saw Spurs suffer a chastening defeat as three further goals completed a 4-0 aggregate defeat.
"One team is much stronger," said Jose Mourinho afterwards, pointing to his injury list. "Of course it was difficult and Leipzig clearly deserve to get to the quarter-finals. Every team in the world would struggle with five or six of their most important players missing. It's as simple as that. All the players on the Leipzig bench would play at this moment in my team."
The reigning European champions were eliminated in dramatic fashion at Anfield as Atletico Madrid came from behind to win the tie in extra-time. After losing 1-0 in the Spanish capital, Gini Wijnaldum's goal took the return leg into the extra period and Roberto Firmino looked to have won it for the Reds. But everything went wrong for Jurgen Klopp's side soon after.
Substitute Marcos Llorente scored twice before Alvaro Morata capped the turnaround late on to leave Anfield stunned. "We accept it, of course, but it doesn't feel right tonight," said Klopp afterwards. "We know in the past two years we had some lucky moments in the Champions League but today everything was against us in the decisive moments."
Although Frank Lampard's team did not actually exit the competition until August, they were arguably the first English team to have their hopes of progression dashed given that the first leg of their last-16 tie with Bayern Munich was played on February 25. Chelsea were beaten 3-0 by the German champions at Stamford Bridge in what was an emphatic beating.
There was little hope of an upset win in Bavaria and so it proved as Bayern won the return leg 4-1 to complete a 7-1 aggregate thrashing. "It is not the norm for Chelsea," Lampard told reporters after the game. "We want more but the feeling is we have achieved something with the group we have. Now is the time to think where we can improve."
Wolves had the longest journey of any team to the quarter-finals of the Europa League having had to play 16 matches just to get that far. The adventure ended in painful circumstances as they were beaten by Sevilla. Not only did Wolves waste the chance to take the lead when Raul Jimenez's penalty was saved but they conceded the winner late on.
Lucas Ocampos's 88th-minute goal was no less than Sevilla deserved - they were the stronger side on the night. Wolves looked exhausted. They had just a quarter of the possession and a quarter of the game's 24 attempts. Still, there were regrets. "We had moments," said manager Nuno Espirito Santo. "Small details, small margins."
This was perhaps the biggest shock of the lot given that Lyon found themselves languishing down in seventh in Ligue 1 when that competition was called to a halt. City, meanwhile, were tournament favourites going into the game in Lisbon. And yet, they contrived to lose 3-1 after a curious team selection by Pep Guardiola and a horrendous miss by Raheem Sterling.
Guardiola's line-up was a cautious one reflecting his lack of faith in his defence. While those concerns proved understandable given the defensive errors that followed, City were also robbed of fluency in attack. Decisions went against them but this was not a good display. "I don't want to complain or look for excuses," Guardiola said afterwards. "We are out."
When Bruno Fernandes converted his penalty kick early in the game against Sevilla, Manchester United looked set to succeed where Wolves had failed. Instead, they became the latest Premier League team to be vanquished by the Spanish side - beaten 2-1 as goals from Suso and Luuk de Jong turned the tie on its head in Cologne.
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer's side had their chances with Anthony Martial twice going close and goalkeeper Bono pulling off a series of saves. But poor defending from Victor Lindelof and Aaron Wan-Bissaka at the other end of the pitch proved costly as United became the first team to lose in the semi-finals of the FA Cup, League Cup and in Europe in the same season.
It is striking that, with the exception of Chelsea, none of the other clubs were eliminated by former Champions League winning clubs even if Sevilla are the masters of the Europa League. All would have held out hopes of progression but the margins went against them.
In the previous season, Tottenham produced an extraordinary comeback to see off Ajax in their semi-final after coming up with another improbable result to knock out Manchester City in the last eight. This time around, there were to be no such heroics.
Liverpool supporters are more accustomed to the Anfield magic being their domain on European evenings, never more so than when they overturned a three-goal deficit against Barcelona last season. On this occasion, a repeat performance against Atletico would have seemed almost routine by comparison. Instead, the biter was bit.
Arsenal too had ridden their luck one year before, losing the first leg of their last-16 tie against Rennes 3-1 before delivering a confident display in winning 3-0 at the Emirates.
Wolves actually exceeded expectations given that they had to negotiate three qualifying rounds before even reaching the group stages - and once they got there they kicked that off with a 1-0 home defeat to Braga. A best European run in almost 50 years was a triumph.
The real disappointment here was felt by the Manchester clubs. City and United had gone into their games against Lyon and Sevilla respectively as favourites to win the trophies. The prospect of a UEFA Super Cup between the two would have been a mouth-watering one.
They were victims of their own mistakes but perhaps also the change of format. The introduction of one-legged European ties on neutral ground following the coronavirus crisis added that element of uncertainty that is sometimes missing over 180 minutes.
This unpredictability is hinted at by the fact that the final four of the Champions League is also free of Spanish and Italian sides. There is neither Lionel Messi nor Cristiano Ronaldo at the semi-final stage for the first time in 15 years. Something has changed.
With teams from France and Germany contesting the semi-finals of Europe's premier club competition, it is tempting to conclude that schedules have played their part in this outcome. Paris Saint-Germain and Lyon did not resume domestic duties following lockdown, while the Bundesliga began and finished earlier than other major leagues.
Certainly, there were signs that Manchester United's lack of squad depth was a factor in their failure to get the job done as the same players were asked to go again and again. Wolves clearly struggled with fatigue as they were unable to change it up from the bench.
But extrapolating too much from all this should probably be avoided. Cup competitions can be fickle. Sometimes that can work in your favour. Other times, as Premier League teams found out to their cost this season, it can dash dreams in an instant.
