England’s hopes of securing a fifth Champions League spot took a big hit Wednesday night as defending champions Manchester City and Arsenal were both knocked out of the competition.
At the Etihad Stadium, Manchester City’s hold on the title was wrestled away by the most successful club in the history of the competition Real Madrid who prevailed 4-3 on penalties in a dramatic quarter-final second leg.
With both teams level on 3-3 from the first leg, 14-time champions Real Madrid took the lead in the 12th minute through Rodrygo.
City fought back and eventually got the equaliser 14 minutes from the end of normal time when Kevin de Bruyne pounced on Antonio Rudiger’s clearance to make scores 1-1.
After extra time failed to produce more goals, the exciting tie which was level on 4-4 went to penalties.
Manchester City looked on course to reachinf the semi-final when Luka Modric missed Real Madrid’s first penalty but Bernardo Silva’s dreadful effort and another from substitute Mateo Kovacic were saved by goalkeeper Andriy Lunin, leaving former Chelsea defender Rudiger to step up and clinch victory for the greateat Champions League team.
The loss ended City’s bid for another Treble of Champions League, Premier League and FA Cup -which they achieved last season.
At the Allianz in Germany, Arsenal made a another disappointing exit from the Champions League as they were beaten by Bayern Munich 1-0 to crash out 3-2 on aggregate.
Joshua Kimmich got the only goal of the game with a powerful 63rd-minute header from Raphael Guerreiro’s cross.
Despite being held 2-2 at the Emirates Stadium last week, Arsenal were confident of advancing against a Bayern Munich side who had endured a poor domestic season and were without key players Serge Gnabry and Kingsley Coman due to injury.
In a tight and cagey second leg, watched by Arsenal owner Stan Kroenke, Gabriel Martinelli had the best chance of the first half for the Gunners but he shot straight at goalkeeper Manuel Neuer after Jamal Musiala had forced David Raya into a full-stretch save at the other end.
Bayern will now meet Real Madrid in the semi-finals while Borussia Dortmund take on Paris St-Germain.
The exit of Man City and Arsenal puts more pressure on the English clubs in the Europa League to get an extra European spot for the country.
West Ham will have to overturn their two-goal deficit against Bayer Leverkusen and Liverpool will have to somehow overhaul Atalanta’s three-goal first-leg lead in Italy.
Aston Villa who play in the Conference League would also have to advance against French club, Lille.