REVEALED: The remarkable stat that shows how bad England’s Champions League group stage was as Manchester United and Newcastle claim unwanted record after crashing out of Europe

• Manchester United finished bottom of Group A with four points 
• Newcastle were also eliminated after coming last in Group F  
• Back off Erik ten Hag! Insipid Man United performances are on the players – not the manager – Listen to why on It’s All Kicking Off 

Manchester United and Newcastle set an unwanted record as they both crashed out of the Champions League at the group stage.

Erik ten Hag’s men finished bottom of Group A with just four points – their lowest ever tally in the competition- while Eddie Howe’s team came bottom of Group F with points in six games. 

It marks the first time in Champions League history that two Premier League clubs have both finished bottom of their respective groups in the same season.

In fact, the sight of an English team languishing in last place in their group is so rare that it had happened just three times until this year.

Blackburn’s first and hitherto only appearance in European football’s elite competition was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

Manchester United finished bottom of Group A after losing to Bayern Munich on Tuesday

Newcastle were also eliminated from the Champions League after coming last in Group F

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Drawn in an eminently winnable group alongside Rosenborg, Legia Warsaw and Spartak Moscow, the Premier League champions approached the competition with high hopes.

But three defeats in the opening three games soon put paid to any ambition of reaching the quarter-finals and Blackburn’s involvement in the competition is best remember for Graeme Le Saux fighting Gareth Batty on the pitch in Moscow.

The Blackburn duo lost their cool and Rovers lost the game, finishing bottom of Group B despite a 4-1 win over Rosenborg in their final group game.

A decade later, it was United’s turn to conspire to finish bottom of a relatively easy group.

Stalemate draws against Villarreal and at home against Lille either side of a 2-1 win over Benfica at Old Trafford left United top of Group D after three matches and on track for the Round of 16. 

But a spectacularly unravelling on and off the pitch lurked. 

Roy Keane famously castigated his teammates’ standards in an an interview with MUTV following a 4-1 defeat against Middlesbrough.

The Irishman’s opinions were so excoriating that the Sir Alex Ferguson instructed United’s in-house channel to bin the interview and eventually offloaded Keane just over two weeks later.

Blackburn’s sole involvement in the Champions League ended with them finishing bottom of their group with four points in 1995-96

United came last in their group 10 years later, losing to Benfica 2-1 in their final game (above)

Amid turmoil behind the scenes, United were dismal in a 1-0 away defeat to a Lille side that up to that point had failed to score in three matches and were then held to a goalless draw by Villarreal at home.

Needing to avoid defeat in Lisbon against Benfica in their final group game, Ferguson’s men took an early lead through Paul Scholes before conceding twice to lose 2-1.  

United were out and Ferguson’s reign was crumbling. Or so it seemed, anyway. 

The Scot, unsurprisingly, had other ideas and went on to lift four Premier League titles and the Champions League in the six years after their abrupt group stage exit in 2005.

Man City’s first foray in the Champions League ended with just three points in six games

And Manchester City fans who undoubtedly revelled in United’s ordeal got a taste of their own medicine seven years later.

If City were still drunk on Sergio Aguero’s title-winning heroics, their first Champions League campaign was a portentous hangover.

Drawn in a group of bonafide European royalties containing Real Madrid, Borussia Dortmund and Ajax, City twice took the lead in the last 20 minutes at the Bernabeu only to lose the opening fixture of Group D 3-2 with Cristiano Ronaldo scoring a 90th minute winner.

A late Mario Balotelli’s penalty rescued a point against Dortmund, but City could only muster a point from their next two games as the lost 3-1 to Ajax in Amsterdam and drew 2-2 at home against the Eredivisie giants.

IT’S ALL KICKING OFF! 

It’s All Kicking Off is an exciting new podcast from Mail Sport that promises a different take on Premier League football.

It is available on MailOnline, Mail+, YouTube, Apple Music and Spotify.

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A home draw against Real followed, before a 1-0 loss to Dortmund left them bottom of the group and out of Europe altogether.

The growing pains have long been overcome.

On Wednesday, City became the first English club to win eight consecutive games in the Champions League after winning 3-2 in Belgrade against Red Star to finish top of Group G with a perfect record.

And they remain on track to become the first English to retain the trophy after Nottingham Forest won the European Cup in 1979 and 1980. 

 

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