England has four teams in the quarter-finals of the Champions League for the first time in a decade after Liverpool joined both Manchester clubs and Tottenham in the last eight of the competition with victory over Bayern Munich.
Not since Liverpool, United, Arsenal and Chelsea reached the same stage in 2008-09 have Premier League teams been so dominant in Europe – although Barcelona ended up as champions that season.
The English clubs will have to wait until Friday to find out if they have avoided one another as they go into the draw with Barca, Juventus, FC Porto and Ajax. In the meantime, MailOnline takes a look at how well the four teams are equipped to go all the way in the Champions League this season.
Which English team out of the four in the quarter-finals can win the Champions League?
LIVERPOOL
English football’s most successful club in the European Cup progressed to the final under Jurgen Klopp a year ago and will be hoping to go one better this season.
For all City’s goals against Schalke in the last-16 and United’s guts in coming back to beat Paris-Saint Germain, Liverpool’s 3-1 away win against an established European heavyweight like Bayern was just as impressive.
Klopp’s side are significantly stronger to the one that brushed City aside in the semis last season before losing to Real Madrid in the final in Kiev with the summer acquisitions of defender Virgil van Dijk and goalkeeper Alisson Becker making Liverpool a different proposition at home and abroad.
It has given the five-time European champions the defensive stability to complement one of the most feared forward lines on the continent.
Critics will point to Klopp’s record in losing his last six cup finals as manager of Liverpool and Borussia Dortmund – including Champions League final defeats with both clubs – but the German will fancy his chances if he gets there again.
Key player: Virgil van Dijk. The Dutch colossus demonstrated his importance to Liverpool again in Munich, contributing to the first goal and scoring the crucial second while keeping Robert Lewandowski under wraps.
Virgil van Dijk has contributed massively to Liverpool and made them serious contenders
Jurgen Klopp’s men kept Bayern Munich in check and progressed through to the quarters
MANCHESTER CITY
Pep Guardiola’s side displayed their Champions League credentials with a brutal 10-2 aggregate win over Schalke in the last 16.
The Germans may have been the weakest team left in the competition, but City’s 7-0 win at the Etihad was still an emphatic statement to the rest of Europe.
No-one can doubt Guardiola’s record in the European Cup, having won it once as a player and twice as coach of Barcelona. And although he has tried to limit the expectations on his players by claiming City are ‘teenagers’ in Europe and lack ‘history’ in the competition, he is fooling no-one. They are one of the favourites and rightly so.
Not for the first time in recent years, City’s biggest problem could be competing on so many fronts. Having banked the Carabao Cup, they are involved in a fierce Premier League title race with Liverpool that will stretch the resources of both clubs, as well as going for the FA Cup.
If any club is capable of completing an historic Quadruple, however, it’s City with Guardiola at the helm and so many top players at his disposal.
Key man: Sergio Aguero. The best of an exceptional bunch, his goals will be crucial if City are to finally realise their potential in Europe. The Argentine star has delivered consistently on the big stage and is more than capable of doing so again.
Sergio Aguero is the best of an exceptional bunch in the impressive Manchester City team
Manager Pep Guardiola will be praying they can continue their good run after a 7-0 win
MANCHESTER UNITED
If you had touted United as Champions League contenders in December, it would have been dismissed as pure fantasy. They had qualified for the last-16 on the back of an uninspiring campaign notable only for a rather fortuitous away win over Juventus in Group H.
Such has been the transformation at Old Trafford in the three months since Ole Gunnar Solskjaer replaced Jose Mourinho at the wheel, however, that anything feels possible now.
United’s sensational comeback to beat PSG in Paris with an injury-hit team and the odds stacked against them has raised hopes that Solskjaer can lead the club to victory in Europe 20 years after his injury-time winner over Bayern Munich.
They remain one of the less-fancied teams among the last eight. The change in mood around the club can only compensate for some of the problems that will need addressing in the summer, and United are also involved in a battle to finish in the top-four of the Premier League and win the FA Cup.
But Solskjaer has done enough in a short space of time to make anyone wary of writing them off.
Key man: Paul Pogba. No-one has responded to the change of manager at United quite like the Frenchman. Pogba has gone from a moody misfit under Mourinho to the player who helped inspire his country to World Cup glory last summer, and one who is a match for any midfielder in Europe.
Manchester United are one of the less fancied teams, but they shouldn’t be written off yet
Ole Gunnar Solskjaer has transformed Manchester United’s bad season since taking over
TOTTENHAM
No-one could accuse Spurs of having it easy in this season’s Champions League. They crept into the last 16 after pipping Inter Milan to second place in a difficult Group B and then beat Borussia Dortmund 4-0 on aggregate.
However, the second-leg win over the Germans at Wembley was Tottenham’s only success in their last five games in all competitions, and there is a concern that Mauricio Pochettino’s side are running out of gas at a crucial point of the season again.
Contenders in the Premier League title race for so long, Spurs are now battling just to finish in the top-four. Out of the four English qualifiers, they have the least Champions League experience and are likely to be the ones that European clubs would prefer to be drawn against on Friday.
At least, Pochettino has less on his plate than Liverpool, City and United, and the return of Dele Alli after almost two months out has given Tottenham an important boost just when then they needed it.
Key player: Harry Kane. Who else? The England captain has five goals in the Champions League this season and will be a handful for any club left in the competition. But Kane will need to keep firing if Tottenham have a chance of going all the way.
Tottenham’s form in the Premier League has dipped but they’re still in the Champions League
Spurs have had a difficult run in the Champions League so far, and are still in with a chance