Two English clubs have made it through to the quarter-finals of this year’s Champions League.
In 2013, Arsenal, Chelsea, Manchester City and Manchester United were all halted in their stride in UEFA’s elite competition for clubs.
Chelsea partially made up for that upset by becoming the first English club to lift all three major honours on the continent after winning the Europa League.
Arsenal and Manchester City were dumped out of the tournament earlier this month by holders Bayern Munich and favourites Barcelona respectively, leaving Chelsea and Manchester United as the only Premier League sides in the last eight.
This is the fourth consecutive year that Arsenal have been eliminated at the first knock-out stage and, while credit is due for the sheer consistency in reaching at least the last-16 of the tournament for a 14th consecutive season, the glittering prize keeps eluding Arsene Wenger’s Gunners who were beaten finalists in 2006.
Since the transfer of Robin van Persie to Manchester United, Wenger has failed to find a suitable replacement as the fans remain bewildered by the French manager’s reluctance to spend big despite the considerable funds at his disposal.
Both Arsenal and Manchester City lost the home leg in their last-16 ties, leaving them with a mountain to climb for the return match.
Days after the Citizens were ousted by Barcelona from the UEFA Champions League, Manuel Pellegrini’s team were bundled out of the FA Cup by Championship side Wigan in the quarter-finals in front of their own crowd.
At Old Trafford, the suffering Manchester United fans finally had something to cheer about this season as David Moyes’s men overturned a 0-2 first-leg deficit to beat Greece’s Olympiakos 3-2 on aggregate.
The last time United succeeded in cancelling a 0-2 first-leg deficit in Europe was in 1984 when Ron Atkinson’s team stunned Barce-lona 3-0 in the second leg of the quarter-finals of the now-defunct Cup Winners’ Cup.
Meanwhile, it is interesting to note that the eight teams in the quarter-finals of the Champions League were all group winners in the qualifying stage of the tour-nament.
Chelsea progressed from the last 16 round after beating Didier Drogba’s Galatasaray 2-0 following a 1-1 draw in Turkey.
The Blues will now test their wits against PSG who are inspired by giant striker and lethal finisher Zlatan Ibrahimovic.
The only time Chelsea and Paris SG met in the competition was in a 2004-05 group-phase tie.
On that occasion, Chelsea held the upperhand, winning 3-0 away and drawing 0-0 at home.
United’s opponents in the quarter-finals will be none other than holders Bayern Munich, who beat Arsenal 3-1 on aggregate in the previous round and were paired with Manchester City in the group phase.
An omen that has survived up to this day following the revamp of the competition in the early 1990s is that the holders have never retained the trophy.
Bayern Munich captain Phillip Lahm told reporters after the draw that United’s poor position in the Premier League table would not fool the German champions even though Moyes suffered a severe setback last week when he was informed that Dutch striker Van Persie will be out until the end of April.
The United-Bayern clash will revive memories of the 1999 Champions League final when the English side won 2-1 with stoppage-time goals from Teddy Sheringham and Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
In addition to the the 1999 title match, United and Bayern met on four other occasions in the competition.
Two of the match-ups came in the quarter-finals of 2001 and 2010 when Bayern went through.
In the remaining matches the spoils were shared in draws at home and away, in 1998-99 and 2001-02, in the group phase.