Champions Travel

Can another English team reach the Champions League Final in 2023?

The past 5 years have been a real purple patch for English football, with a Premier League team involved in 4 of the last 5 Champions League finals and both Chelsea and Liverpool managing to lift the trophy.

Both Tottenham (2019) and Manchester City (2021) have fallen short in the final showpiece in recent times too, testament to the strength currently within the English game and how it is transcending into the wider European sphere.

However, for the relative dominance of English football, it is Spanish giants Real Madrid who have the best individual club record in the Champions League in recent times. With 5 of the last 10 Champions League campaigns being won by Real Madrid, there is no doubting that they are once again the team to beat in European competition.

As the competition moves through the last 16 and into the quarter-finals, Premier League fans are posing the question as to whether yet another English team can enjoy more Champions League success in 2022/23.

Tottenham

A very disappointing campaign for Tottenham was compounded in the last 16 as they bombed out to Italian champions AC Milan. Failing to score across the two games saw Milan prevail 1-0 on aggregate, giving Spurs serious questions about their future and how manager Antonio Conte can continue as manager at the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium.

Perhaps more alarmingly for Tottenham is that another season now passes by without a trophy, and they also look to be in a serious battle in their upcoming Premier League fixtures, to secure Champions League football once again for next season.

Liverpool

2022 Champions League finalists Liverpool have endured a very tough season. The reds are well out of the running in the Premier League title race and have been knocked out of both domestic competitions, having won both the Carabao Cup and the FA Cup last season.

It was the Champions League that Jurgen Klopp’s men were seen to be targeting when they were paired against Real Madrid, but things certainly did not go to plan at Anfield. Despite being two goals up in rapid time, everything started unravelling for Liverpool dramatically and they were eventually defeated 5-2 in humbling first leg defeat.

However, Liverpool have been a side on the up in recent games and their loss to Madrid was the only real blotch on their copybook. A resounding 7-0 win over Manchester United in the Premier League last week has only served to remind the footballing fraternity of just how dangerous Liverpool can be on their day, and whilst Real Madrid are the strong favourites to progress to the last 8 when the sides meet on March 15^th, ruling out Liverpool completely is a very dangerous game to play.

Manchester City

Whilst not many City fans would necessarily agree, the one glaring omission from the trophy cabinet in recent years has been the Champions League. The sky blues have enjoyed an incredible decade of domestic dominance, underlined by their 6 Premier League titles in 10 years but the lack of Champions League trophy is a stick they are constantly beaten with.

Reaching the 2021 final and losing out to Chelsea is sure to be a sore point, whilst others will point to the dramatic turnaround of events against Real Madrid last season, that saw City blow a 2-goal lead in the space of a minute.

It has been a comfortable Champions League campaign so far for City, who overcame Borussia Dortmund, Sevilla, and FC Copenhagen to book their place in the last 16 and they currently find themselves level with RB Leipzig, following a 1-1 draw in Germany last month.

City will be all too aware that they need to overcome Leipzig in order to progress this term and should they get past the Germans, they will be hopeful of finally breaking that Champions League luck.

Chelsea

2012 and 2021 Champions League winners Chelsea have all their eggs in the Champions League basket this season, following a truly disastrous domestic campaign. Thomas Tuchel was shown the door early on in the campaign and with new manager Graham Potter at the helm, it has taken much longer than people expected for the blues to be moving upwards.

Chelsea are currently languishing in mid-table in the Premier League and they look way off the pace in terms of finishing inside the top 4 and meriting a position in next season's Champions League through league position alone. Both the FA Cup and Carabao Cup have fallen by the wayside too, with the blues now looking to this season’s Champions League as a catalyst for next year.

The blues enjoyed one of their best results this season in the last 16 of the Champions League, overturning a 1-0 deficit against Borussia Dortmund, winning 2-1 on aggregate at Stamford Bridge, to book their place in the last 8 and with not much else to play for this term, they could be relative dark horses in the Champions League this season.

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