The premier problem
London: 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 leaders Arsenal is now clearly favored to advance.
Arsenal host 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 football 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 underdogs Bodø/Glimt take a 3-0 lead to Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday and Bayern Munich is up 6-1 hosting Atalanta on Wednesday.
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.
