MANCHESTER: Kings of the league phase, England’s six Champions League sides were made to look like paupers in the first legs of the last 16 as they failed to muster a win between them.

Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur have seemingly insurmountable mountains to climb, even with home advantage this week, as they trail by three goals against Real Madrid, Paris St-Germain and Atletico Madrid, respectively.

Liverpool and Arsenal will expect to still get past Galatasaray and Bayer Leverkusen, while Newcastle United are dreaming of shocking Barcelona in the Camp Nou after outplaying the Spanish champions in a 1-1 draw at St. James’ Park.

The Premier League’s financial advantage over Europe’s other major leagues, thanks to far more lucrative television rights deals, has not been reflected in the latter stages of the Champions League for some time.

Only three of the last 13 Champions League winners have come from England.

Arsenal were the only Premier League club to reach the last four last season and none reached the semi-finals in the 2023/24 campaign.

Fatigue after a gruelling winter schedule is often cited as the main factor for the decline of English sides as the only major league without a winter break and two domestic cup competitions.

French great and former UEFA president Michel Platini once referred to English sides as “lions in winter, lambs in spring”.

“In general, I think it is not helpful for English clubs not to have a winter break,” said Liverpool boss Arne Slot.

Of the six English sides involved in the Champions League, four of them also made the League Cup semi-finals and five were involved in FA Cup action in the days before their European disappointment last week.

Despite the Premier League’s collective financial might, in three of the six last-16 ties involving English clubs, they are facing sides with greater revenue.

Real Madrid remain the world’s richest club and defied recent poor form to blow away Manchester City 3-0 at the Santiago Bernabeu.

But City manager Pep Guardiola has insisted “many things can happen” as his side try to overturn the deficit.

“It’s a football game, many things can happen,” Guardiola, speaking at his pre-match press conference on Monday told reporters.

“We have to focus and try to win the game and after see what happens. I don’t have a specific plan — just try.”

Guardiola has opted not to train on the day prior to the game as the team recover from the trip to Madrid and their 1-1 draw at West Ham on Saturday which damaged City’s Premier League title hopes.

“Training won’t improve us a lot and we don’t have time to train,” Guardiola said. “I prefer them to be at home.”

The Spaniard, who made his name as a player and manager with Real’s arch-rivals Barcelona, added: “We will train tomorrow (Tuesday). We will arrive at 2:00 pm (1400 GMT), move the legs a little and go. I’ve done it two or three times this season.”

Defending champions PSG also clicked back into gear to see off Chelsea 5-2 and Barcelona were happy to escape Newcastle on level terms after Lamine Yamal’s penalty snatched a late draw.

Tottenham’s 5-2 defeat by Atletico was also little surprise given Spurs’ sorry domestic form which has left them fighting for their survival in the Premier League.The Premier League has become even more attritional this season, with games littered with long throw-ins and physical battles at set-pieces.

“It’s so relentless, physically. There’s not much control; it’s a running game. It’s about duels,” said Newcastle’s Anthony Gordon earlier in the season.

Slot commented earlier this month that the English game is no longer a “joy to watch” due to the emphasis on dead balls.

“Here, you can almost hit a goalkeeper in his face and the referee still says ‘just go on’,” added the Dutchman.

By contrast, Slot was angered by Spanish referee Jesus Gil Manzano’s reluctance to allow any physical contact from corners as the Reds had an equaliser ruled out in their 1-0 defeat in Istanbul.

Guardiola has responded to the fashion for a more physical Premier League by beefing up his City side.

But they lack the control and poise to dominate the ball they used to have and were cut open by Federico Valverde’s first-half hat-trick in Madrid.

In the two games without an English team, the remarkable Norwegian underdog Bodo/Glimt takes a 3-0 lead to Sporting Lisbon on Tuesday and Bayern Munich are up 6-1 hosting Atalanta on Wednesday.

Bodo/Glimt should have no fear going to Sporting’s 52,000-seat José Alvalade Stadium that is more than six times bigger than their home stadium.

Coach Kjetil Knutsen’s team already won this year in front of bigger crowds and intense atmospheres at Atletico’s Metropolitano Stadium and the San Siro against Inter Milan.

Bodo’s shocking 2-1 win at Atletico in the last round of league-phase games in January meant squeezing into the 24-team knockout phase placed 23rd in the 36-team standings. A 2-1 win in Milan completed a 5-2 scoreline in the knockout playoffs round in February.

Both teams should be fresh in Lisbon after skipping scheduled domestic league games at the weekend to help them prepare.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2026

INDIAN WELLS: Jannik Sinner and Aryna Sabal­anka claimed their maiden Indian Wells titles, after gripping matches under the California desert sun on Sunday.

Sinner downed Daniil Medvedev 7-6(8/6), 7-6(7/4) while Sabalenka saved a match point on the way to a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(8/6) victory over Elena Rybakina.

The Italian was imperious throughout, finishing with 28 winners, 10 aces and a perfect eight out of eight net points.

He is now only the third player in history to win all six ATP Masters 1000 hard-court titles, joining Novak Djokovic and Roger Federer.

Furthermore, with his first title of the year, he became the first player since 1990 to win consecutive Masters 1000 titles without dropping a set and extended his winning streak in this category to 11 matches, dating back to his Paris title last November.

“I kept believing and kept pushing,” Sinner said after the match. “I went for my shots a little more. A third set, we would have started even, so I tried my best to close it out and I am very happy. It was an incredible ending.

“It was a very, very tough match,” Sinner said. “It is great to see Daniil back playing this level. I am very happy. I came here from day one, training really hard and this result makes me very happy,” he added.

Medvedev reached the final in superb form, having stunned the world number one, Carlos Alcaraz, in the semi-finals ending the Australian Open champion’s perfect 16-match winning streak at the start of the season.

However, he has now lost three Indian Wells finals.

Earlier in the women’s decider, Sabalenka claimed a long-awaited first Indian Wells title.

Sabalenka ended a frustrating run of finals futility against Rybakina, who had won their last four title clashes starting with a triumph at Indian Wells in 2023 and including a nail-biter at the Australian Open in January.

Sabalenka rallied from a break down in the second set and fought off a match point trailing 5-6 in the tiebreaker before finally gaining the longed-for title — and a healthy measure of revenge.

“Thanks God I got this trophy,” said the Belarusian, who lost to Russian teen Mirra Andreeva in last year’s final.

She had appeared on her way with a break for 2-1 in the third set.

But Rybakina piled on the return pressure to break back for 5-5 and fought off five break points in the next game.

Deflated but determined, Sabalenka held at love to force the tiebreaker, rallying from 3-5 down before saving match point with a stunning backhand winner. She won the next point on Rybakina’s serve and delivered another massive serve herself to seal it.

“On that five-all game, I was really upset each time I would miss her second serve,” Sabalenka said. “I felt like I had a lot of opportunities in that game, which I didn’t use. I didn’t feel my best, for sure, after that game.

“But what I’m happy with is that in the next one I was able to pull out great serves to get that game and get into the tiebreak.”

Sabalenka said that the “boiling” temperature on court had her “dying” in the tiebreaker, but she could see that Rybakina was affected, too.

“I think the first set I played really well, and I was much more with the energy. Second set, big drop,” Rybakina said. “Then in the third, I think for both of us was quite difficult.”

Sabalenka will now head into her Miami Open title defense aiming to complete the “Sunshine Double.”

Rybakina will arrive in Miami ranked second in the world, climbing one spot to overtake Poland’s Iga Swiatek.

Published in Dawn, March 17th, 2026

PARIS: RC Lens missed the chance to move top of Ligue 1 and put pressure on Paris St-Germain as they slipped to a 2-1 loss at Lorient on Saturday.

Pierre Sage’s side were aiming to go two points clear of PSG at the summit, with the reigning champions not playing this weekend so they can rest for Tuesday’s Champions League last-16 second leg at Chelsea.

But Lens, targeting a second Ligue 1 title and first since 1998, fell to a costly defeat and have now won only one of their last four league matches.

“We had a lot of possession, but we weren’t creative enough to fashion chances,” said Lens coach Sage. “We missed an opportunity.”

Bamba Dieng put Lorient into an 18th-minute lead. The visitors hit back, though, shortly after half-time, as Odsonne Edouard collected the ball inside the Lorient half, carried it to the edge of the box and unleashed a low shot into the bottom corner.

But Lorient regained the advantage in the 65th minute, as Aiyegun Tosin stabbed the ball in from almost on the goal-line after just about controlling Arsene Kouassi’s cross.

Lens piled on the pressure late on with a series of set-pieces but could not force another equaliser.

Lorient climbed to eighth in the table, just four points behind sixth-placed Lille, who have a game in hand, in the race for European qualification.

Elsewhere on Saturday, AS Monaco moved into fifth place with a fifth consecutive Ligue 1 victory as Folarin Balogun scored his 14th goal of the season in all competitions in a 2-0 win over Brest.

Nice won 2-0 at Angers with goals from defender Melvin Bard and Elye Wahi. The striker, a France youth international, joined the Riviera club on loan from Eintracht Frankfurt this winter until the end of the season.

Nice climbed eight points clear of the relegation play-off place and snap a six-game winless run in the league.

Published in Dawn, March 16th, 2026