England has officially become the first nation to ever place five teams into the UEFA Champions League knockout stage. Four (Manchester United, Liverpool, Tottenham Hotspur, Manchester City) of the five British teams won their groups, while Chelsea FC fell short by just one point.
Spain is the only country other than England to ever put five teams even into the group stage. Chelsea FC drew with Atletico Madrid 1-1 in their final group stage match, and finished second in Group C to AS Roma.
Both finished with 11 points, but the Serie A side took home the group title by virtue of tie-breaker. Tottenham Hotspur won Group H with 16 points, three better than Real Madrid, the two time defending champions of the entire competition. Manchester City won Group F, by three points over second place Shakhtar Donetsk.
Manchester United won Group A very convincingly, winning five of six group stage matches while Liverpool routed Spartak Moscow 7-0 today top Group E. The other group winners were Barcelona, Paris Saint-Germain and Besiktas. On Monday, UEFA will hold the round of 16 draw and announce the knockout round match-ups.
Paul M. Banks runs The Sports Bank.net and TheBank.News, which is partnered with News Now. Banks, a former writer for the Washington Times, NBC Chicago.com and Chicago Tribune.com, currently contributes regularly to WGN CLTV and the Tribune company’s blogging community Chicago Now.
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