After the first legs of this season’s Champions League last-16 ties, there was the anticipation of the Premier League recovering its dominant position of a decade ago.
In 2008, Chelsea overcame regular semi-final foes, Liverpool, only to lose to Manchester United on penalties in a Moscow final.
Recent years have proved a more fallow affair but February’s first legs ended with Manchester City and Liverpool all but through to a draw that would pit them mouth-wateringly together and none of Chelsea, Tottenham or Manchester United was behind – the latter two with home legs to come.
Then Lionel Messi happened, streetwise Juventus happened and nothing of any particular note happened at Old Trafford before United collapsed to a humiliating loss against Sevilla.
It left Pep Guardiola and Jurgen Klopp as the keepers of English football’s flame in Europe’s top competition – a curious position for the two master tacticians to hold given the consistent wave of criticism each faced early in their current tenures.