City and Arsenal crash out of the Champions League

There will be no English teams in the Semi-Finals of the Champions League after both Manchester City and Arsenal crashed out at the Quarter-Final stage last night.

It was a bad night for Manchester City and Arsenal, as both teams crashed out of the Champions League at the Quarter-Final stage, despite being two of the favourites to win the competition.  It means the Premier League will have no representatives in the Semi-Finals of the competition, after City lost 4-3 on penalties to Real Madrid at the Etihad Stadium, while Arsenal suffered a 1 - 0 defeat to Bayern Munich at the Allianz Arena.

Ahead of last night's games, both English teams were expected to progress, with City playing the second leg at home, and Arsenal playing a Bayern team low on confidence and having one of their worst seasons in recent memory.  Yet both looked tired and jaded, with the physical exertions of the season beginning to catch up on them, just as it has with Liverpool in recent weeks.

Arsenal in particular produced a very poor performance, meekly exiting the competition in the later stages, just days after surrendering the lead in the Premier League table.  It is something of a recurring theme with Arsenal in recent years, but this season was supposed to be different, with Arteta and his squad supposedly learning from their past mistakes.  Sadly for the Gunners, they will probably never get a better opportunity to reach the Champions League Finals, with Bayern in terrible form and low on confidence after a dismal season in the Bundesliga.  That Arsenal failed to defeat them will only raise further questions and doubts about the Gunner's fragile mental state, ahead of the final six games of the Premier League season.

City too were not at their free-flowing best, with Haaland and De Bruyne both asking to come off in the later stages of the game against Real, with player fatigue and the risk of injury increasing with every passing minute.  Pep Guardiola must now rally his troops ahead of this weekend's FA Cup Semi-Final against Chelsea.  From a Liverpool perspective, we must hope that this game also goes to extra time and penalties, as Liverpool needs City to drop points in one of their remaining Premier League matches.

Poor penalties cost Man City

Penalty shoot-outs are often described as a 'lottery', though in truth they are a test of a player's mental strength and character.  Some players thrive in pressure situations, while others crumble.  Even the most technically gifted of players can struggle at penalties (see Mo Salah), while less glamorous players (like James Milner) barely missed a penalty in their whole career.

Last night, Manchester City missed two of their penalties, with Bernardo Silva and Mateo Kovacic, seeing their spot kicks saved by Real keeper Andriy Lunin, but it was Silva's effort that will live long in the memory, as the Portuguese midfielder tamely chipped the ball into the arms of the keeper, who didn't have to move from the centre of the goal.

Silva's miss came after a long pause, while the ball was retrieved from the city crowd, with commentators speculating on how the delay may have affected Silva, but it was still a surprise to see such a talented player (and Silva is certainly that) produce such an awful penalty.

Bernardo Silva penalty miss

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