Real Madrid's ruthless dismissal of Manchester City encapsulated 24 hours in which the Premier League's self-styled reputation as the best in the world suffered heavy damage. City have a monumental job on their hands as they endured a similar – albeit less farcical – fate to Spurs, who lost 5-2 to Atletico Madrid in the Spanish capital 24 hours earlier. Federico Valverde's brilliant first-half hat-trick puts Real firmly in control with a 3-0 advantage before the second leg of this last-16 tie, completing a sobering set of results for the Premier League's teams, who all have work to do to maintain their interest in Europe's elite competition. "So while the game is still on for all the English sides, the margin of error is tiny for some of them now." The last time all English sides involved failed to win their last-16 first legs was in 2022-23, so what went wrong?

Source: BBC March 12, 2026 04:39 UTC