English football fans endured two tough nights as the English Premier League clubs failed miserably in the first leg of the Round of 16 of the Champions League. All English teams failed to win their respective matches, leaving fans questioning the EPL's fading authority in the UCL.
As expected, the six teams from the EPL made it to the UCL Round of 16, but none managed to win their first leg game. Arsenal and Newcastle United drew against Bayer Leverkusen and Barcelona, respectively, while the six-time Champions League winners, Liverpool, fell 0-1 away against Galatasaray. These three English sides can bounce back in the second leg, but Manchester City, Chelsea, and Tottenham Hotspur lost by the difference of three goals in the first leg.
These series of losses came as a surprise as five English teams finished in the top eight in the group stages. So, the sudden fall in the first knockout round raises the question of the English Premier League's position in the biggest European league. Is it just a one-time occurrence or becoming a pattern? Let's find out:
How did English Premier League clubs perform in the last three UCL seasons?
Four EPL teams, Liverpool, Arsenal, Manchester City and Aston Villa, featured in the 2024-25 UCL edition, with the Reds topping the group stages with seven wins in eight matches. Arsenal and Aston Villa also qualified for the play-offs, while Manchester City secured a qualification with just three wins.
Manchester City fell to Real Madrid in the play-offs, while Paris Saint-Germain knocked out Liverpool in the Round of 16, Aston Villa in the quarterfinals, and Arsenal in the semifinals.
In the 2023-24 season, with the old four-team group format, two teams, Manchester United and Newcastle, fell to qualify for the knockouts, while Arsenal and Manchester City were eliminated in the quarterfinals.
Before that, in 2023, Manchester City were the only English side able to reach the semifinals and eventually won the Champions League.
However, it was a completely different story before the 2022-23 season. In 2022, Manchester City and Liverpool made it to the semifinals, with the latter finishing as the runners-up. Chelsea and the Citizens fought for the UCL title in 2021, making it the second all-English final after Liverpool defeated the Spurs in the 2019 final.
So, yes, English teams' dominance in the UCL has taken a downturn in the last couple of years, and 2025-26 is not giving any hopes to the English fans.
Also read: Iran pulls out of FIFA World Cup 2026 amid Middle East turmoil
