Champions League guide: what’s at stake for English clubs tonight? | OneFootball

Manchester City and Chelsea face uphill battles to remain in the Champions League this evening, with Arsenal not over the line and through to the quarter finals either.

It was a brutal evening of football last week, which saw Manchester City beaten 3-0 by Real Madrid at the Santiago Bernabeu, while Chelsea were dismantled 5-2 by at Paris Saint Germain in their round of 16 first leg ties.

An 89th minute penalty dispatched by Kai Havertz managed to salvage the Premier League leaders a draw at Bayer Leverkusen, and arguably have the easiest task of the night.

FromTheSpot analyses what each club must do to ensure progression and, in the eyes of some, maintain their competition’s reputation as the best in the world.

Man City: precedent for both success and failure against Madrid

Sky Blue fans are now well acquainted with the Spanish giants, and for mixed reasons.

A classic Champions League night performance ensured City stormed to a 4-0 victory in 2023’s semi-final second leg, winning 5-1 on aggregate to progress to the final. Of course, they went and won that as well courtesy of Rodri, who would then take home the Ballon d’Or.

However, Madrid are in a fantastic position to knock their hosts out of the tournament for a fifth time, adding to wins in 2015/16, 2021/22, 2023/24, and 2024/25. Only Bayern Munich have been knocked out by the same team more times, all seven of which also at the hands of Los Blancos.

Doubling up on Federico Valverde is an absolute imperative for City this evening, who gave full-back Nico O’Reilly a real baptism of fire in the Champions League knockout stages.

City were far too open in general, and will require a more rigid structure in midfield to close the spaces for the likes of the Argentinian to operate.

Speaking at his pre-match press conference, manager Pep Guardiola demanded that his team play both with their heads and hearts.

He said: “We have to be sustainable in our approach in all departments.”

“The first leg was not the best one, it’s difficult sometimes because we created in the first 20 minutes four or five chances and they have three shots on target and three goals. That’s the Champions League.

“We have to live with that and take more risks to try, but even if the result is not good in the first half we still have to keep going and carry on because you never know.”

Guardiola’s call could have been an ever so sutble message to his goalkeeper Gianluigi Donnarumma, who was beaten to his counterpart Thibaut Courtois’ high ball over the defence by Valverde for the opener.

Man City must overcome not only their underwhelming performance last week, but the added pressure exherted by their unwanted record against their European nemeses.

Chelsea: Blues vulnerable on the counter and with toughest task of the night

Liam Rosenior’s main priority will also be to attack from beginning to end.

But much like the threat Valverde poses City, Khvicha Kvaratskhelia will be hungry for more after his brace last week gave Chelsea a mountain to climb at Stamford Bridge.

It will be a case of whether the Blues can better protect their penalty area – whenever the ball entered the box, a goal was either scored or looked very likely.

Yet it’ll also be a case of keeping a cool head, with goalkeeper Filip Jörgensen’s poor pass out of his penalty area falling straight to Bradley Barcola gifting them a 3-2 lead after twice coming from behind.

Rosenior will want to deploy a high line to control the game with the ball, but must ensure his side aren’t as vulnerable on the transition as they were in Paris. An instant after Cole Palmer struck the post at one end, going within inches of a priceless 2-1 lead, it took Luis Enrique’s side just two passes to set Ousmane Dembélé away and smash it into the bottom left corner.

Arsenal: pressure to defy their past and rid ‘bottlejobs’ label

The club with the easiest opponent out of all the English clubs, Arsenal were beaten at their own game last time out as Robert Andrich put them in front from a corner in the first minute of the second half to stun the Premier League leaders.

As with all two-legged affairs, Arsenal would have been far from out of it regardless of whether Kai Havertz could convert his spot kick against his former club, and thanks to his late goal are in an even better position to get themselves back in front.

But Leverkusen are the only side to ever complete an unbeaten season in Bundesliga history, and will not be pushovers. They may well target set pieces for goals once again, with Arteta’s team out to dictate the game with their meticulous and precise build-up play.

Likely to feature is Spanish wing-back Alejandro Grimaldo, whose five goals from free kicks are the most among teams across Europe’s top five leagues, and will take any invitation to take aim at David Raya’s net from a dead ball situation that the Gunners give him.

Key to Arsenal’s second leg and future in this year’s competition, as with any match they approach, is discipline. Not only will it keep up their fans’ hopes of a historic quadruple, or indeed any silverware other than the Premier League title, it will work to rid themselves of past tendencies to fail to see their ambitions through to the end. Or to use a more colloquial term, ‘bottle it’.

Arteta may be missing the likes of Jurrien Timber and Martin Odegaard, but enough quality exists in the side to best an inferior side sat 6th in the German top flight and change their reputation to that of trophy winners.

Both Arsenal and Chelsea’s fixtures will be broadcast live on TNT Sports, with Manchester City’s reunion with Álvaro Arbeloa’s Real Madrid live on Amazon Prime Video at 20:00 (GMT) and full repots and analysis moments after the final whistle on FromTheSpot.