Can England win the Champions League?

The knockout stages of the Champions League are over and only eight teams remain. And for the first time in more than ten years, four of these teams are English. This is obviously good news for the Premier League, which does not boast a Champions League winner since 2012, when a Chelsea team led by an interim manager beat Bayern Munich at home at the Allianz Munich Arena. Not only four English teams remain, but also two favorites according to our Soccer Power Index (SPI).

Aside from Manchester United, who had to face a historic surprise to send Paris Saint Germain to the Cote d 'Azur earlier than he would have liked, the English teams dominated the first qualifying round. On Tuesday, Manchester City embarrassed a Schalke 04 team that is also leading a relegation battle in the Bundesliga, sending 7-0 to its German opponents in the night – tied for the biggest win in a match. history of the Champions League – and 10 -2 on aggregate. Last week, Tottenham Hotspur finished against Borussia Dortmund, a team certainly down for 4 weeks, 4-0 on two runs. Wednesday, Liverpool eliminated Bayern Munich 3 to 1 thanks to a delightful double winger Sadio Mané.

This is impressive because Bayern Munich does not lose in the knockout stages of the Champions League. The last club failed to qualify for the quarter-finals in 2011 and has managed to reach at least the semifinal phase of six of the last seven seasons. . Everything changed Wednesday night.

Bayern's defeat also means that four of the seven most favored teams to win the Champions League a week ago by the SPI have been eliminated from the competition. Now, SPI gives two English teams the best and the second best odds. Manchester City has a 28% chance of winning the final and Liverpool's victory in Munich has increased their chances from 11% to 22%. Imagine that they find themselves in the quarter-finals !?

The strong performance of the EPL clubs shows that the center of European football may be changing – something we quickly noticed last autumn. Bayern Munich is the second blueblood of the UCL to be ousted early after Real Madrid, three-time defending champion, was dismissed by the Dutch Ajax team last week . But in the world of high-level international football, one thing is not ready to change: Cristiano Ronaldo and Lionel Messi are still dominant forces of nature.

Messi organized a master class on Wednesday during a 5-1 win at Camp Nou against a brave Olympique Lyonnais. The French team managed to keep the Argentinean maestro calm during the first leg match two weeks ago in France, but Messi's proved to be too difficult in Barcelona. He scored two (and could have had a few more) and helped two. With this victory, Barcelona's chances of winning the title went from 16% to 20%.

And in Turin, Cristiano Ronaldo did exactly what Juventus paid to Cristiano Ronaldo: make big goals on big European nights. Before the start of their clash with Atletico Madrid, our SPI gave Juventus a meager 12 percent chance of reaching the quarter-finals. A 2-0 defeat against Atletico Madrid in Spain in February meant that Juventus had to score three goals and not give in front of anyone to impose themselves in regulation and qualify for the quarter-finals. Unfortunately for Atletico, there is no real defense for a fit Ronaldo.

And if City, United, Spurs or Liverpool hope to win the Continental Champions League trophy, they may have to go through a fit Ronaldo. Or a Messi in shape. Both realities are terrifying.