In the early morning of April 18, Beijing time, the second leg of the Champions League 1/4 finals was all over, and finally the two Premier League teams Manchester City and Arsenal were eliminated by Real Madrid and Bayern respectively. Since then, Premier League teams have collectively missed the Champions League semi-finals for the first time in nearly four years.
In this season's Champions League, there are four teams in the Premier League, but Newcastle and Manchester United have both stopped in the group stage. Newcastle are understandably bottom of the group of deaths against Milan, Paris and Borussia Dortmund, but it is hard to say that United are overwhelmed by Galatasaray and FC Copenhagen.
Fortunately, Manchester City and Arsenal are still good, and after the group toppers qualified, they eliminated Copenhagen and Porto respectively to reach the last eight. Manchester City and Arsenal were also in the top two odds to win the Champions League at one point. But as the saying goes, if you are hot, you will die. In the end, Manchester City and Arsenal both fell in the quarter-finals. Manchester City lost to Real Madrid on penalties after having the home advantage in the second leg. Arsenal, which has grown in strength in recent years, still can't get rid of the trouble of fate, and was eliminated by Bayern for the fifth time in team history.
In this way, in the top 4 of the Champions League this season, there are no more Premier League teams. This is the first time in nearly four years since the 2019-20 season that such an embarrassment has occurred, which is indeed a bit shameful for the Premier League, which is known as the "world's first league". Of course, the poor performance of the Premier League teams in the Champions League is largely related to the fierce competition for the league title, but on the other hand, it also reflects that compared with Bayern, Real Madrid and other old giants, Manchester City and Arsenal still lack some Champions League heritage.
After the Premier League was "wiped out" from the Champions League, the Premier League has been left 0.642 points behind the second-placed Bundesliga in the European standings this season. With West Ham United and Liverpool also likely to be out of the Europa League, it is unrealistic for the Premier League to surpass the Bundesliga in the European standings in the remaining seasons, which also means that the Premier League's dream of five teams participating in the Champions League next season is basically shattered.