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Three English teams have reached the quarter-finals of the Women’s Champions League this season – but has it been as easy as it appears?

Manchester United, competing in the main draw for the first time, wrapped up a 5-0 aggregate victory over Atletico Madrid on Thursday.

That secured their spot in the last eight via the two-legged play-off, while Arsenal went through the same path, beating OH Leuven 7-1 on aggregate.

Chelsea had already booked their place in the quarter-finals by finishing in the top four of the league phase – the new format introduced this season.

Not exactly.

Reigning champions Arsenal had to kick off their campaign against record eight-time winners Lyon, who they beat in the semi-finals last season.

This time they lost and they were also beaten by Bayern Munich in the league phase, meaning they had work to do to qualify.

It was a nervy few months but victories against Real Madrid and FC Twente helped Arsenal finish fifth in the table. They were handed a favourable tie in their knockout play-offs, avoiding more established European teams like Wolfsburg and Juventus to take on competition debutants OH Leuven, who they had already beaten 3-0 in the league phase.

They bettered that scoreline in the first leg, winning 4-0, but Arsenal boss Renee Slegers insisted it was not straightforward, saying her side just found form when it mattered.

“Ahead of the first game, we were very aware that Leuven had made it difficult for teams in Europe,” said Slegers after their 3-1 victory in the second leg.

“We actually played really well in Leuven and were clinical. When we go into the second game, we know we’re already 4-0 up, so it becomes a different game.”

United had to face Atletico Madrid, who have reached the main draw six times in the past decade, having also played them in the league phase.

The Spanish side are sixth in Liga F and 25 points adrift of leaders Barcelona.

The competition has been far from easy for United though, having to play three qualifying rounds before the league phase – coming from behind to beat Brann – and then meeting two-time winners Wolfsburg, Italian giants Juventus and record-holders Lyon in their group.

“For sure, it hasn’t felt easy. I’ve really enjoyed the structure of the Champions League to get here,” said United boss Marc Skinner. “It’s exposed us to different styles of play. The experiences have helped us grow quickly.

“You look back to when we played Lyon, the close Valerenga game and Juventus in the last game of the league phase – the growth is incredible from our team.”

Even Chelsea, who were top seeds and qualified directly for the quarter-finals, had to play fellow last-eight qualifiers Barcelona and Wolfsburg in the league phase.

In the new format, 18 teams face six opponents, drawn home or away, and the top four in the league phase go straight into the quarter-finals, the bottom six are eliminated and the remaining eight join a seeded play-off for the knockout stage.

Previously, groups of four would play each other home and away with the top two going through to the knockout stages.

That meant the established teams often had a shootout between themselves for top spot in the group – giving them a more favourable tie in the next round – while lower-ranked sides struggled to progress.

It felt like there was more jeopardy this time around but it is a familiar group of heavyweights in the quarter-finals, with debutants United the exception.

Tim Stillman, a lifelong Arsenal fan and writer for Arseblog news, told BBC Sport it has felt like a “more serene” campaign for his side this season and that the new format “protects bigger clubs against jeopardy”.

“The head-to-head games really defined the group stages in previous seasons. Losing to Bayern Munich last year created a lot of tension and drama that maybe wasn’t there in the new league phase format,” he added.

“Arsenal would have had to have not only lost the two games against teams from seeded pot two – which they did – but to have lost twice against lower-ranked teams from pot three or four too. It’s not very likely.

“If you slightly mess up the league phase, like Arsenal did, you go into the play-offs and you’ll most likely get a winnable tie.”

Despite format change debates, one thing English clubs have undoubtedly shown is that they are among Europe’s elite.

Arsenal are still the only club from these shores to win the competition, doing so twice, but only in 2023-24, they failed to progress from the qualifying rounds.

They bounced back last season, playing 15 matches en route to the final where they stunned Barcelona to take the title.

They did not suddenly become winners overnight – they had been capable for a while but had not shown it consistently.

Meanwhile, Chelsea are serial semi-finalists having been in the past three, and were runners-up in 2021.

“We have a very strong league and we have been trying to get to that point where we don’t just have one team representing us in the latter stages,” former England midfielder Fara Williams said on Disney+.

“The fact we have three teams in the quarter-finals shows the growth of the league and that when you invest, this is what can happen.”

Current WSL leaders Manchester City have found the Champions League tough previously, knocked out in qualifying in 2022 and 2023 – and they have not progressed beyond the quarter-finals since 2018.

But United have found a way to break through and their strong defensive record includes eight clean sheets from 12 matches.

With the season heading into its final months, games are coming thick and fast, especially for the Premier League clubs still in Europe.

With the extra games, travelling, time difference and the added disadvantage when teams return to face an away game in the Premier League, player welfare is another problem for managers of those teams. How do you maintain the quality of rest time that you know the players need to perform at the highest level and reduce the risks of injury?

Out of the teams in action this week, Newcastle have had the longest journey. Their 2,529-mile trek to Baku is the furthest distance ever travelled by an English side in the Champions League.

The journey there and back, plus the difficulty of an away game at Manchester City on Saturday evening, is a tough ask – especially when you factor in how, statistically, the results usually go against the team playing away in Europe.

This was something I had to deal with at Stoke when we were in the Europa League, and faced long flights to Israel, Ukraine, Croatia and Turkey.

We tried all kinds of methods to help our recovery, sometimes flying straight back after games, or staying overnight and allowing the medical staff to take the lads in the mornings for a light recovery session, having breakfast then flying home.

It was really difficult to find the most balanced way. Irrespective of what we tried, having to play an away game that same weekend was really tough, and we suffered a couple of heavy Premier League defeats afterwards.

In the modern-day game, enormous investment is made into all different departments of Premier League clubs, and the medical and sports science departments are especially well-supported.

Today, these departments offer enormous amounts of data on fitness issues and players are without doubt treated with more care and attention than ever before.

Gone are the days where you were encouraged to take pain-killing injections or tablets just to get you on the pitch, which were never questioned. Many players in the 1970s and 80s relied on appearance money and win bonuses to pay their mortgages so going through the pain barrier was never an issue.

The amount of change in our game since then in all departments is quite astonishing, and obviously most of it has made things better for all concerned.

For all of those advances, however, there are still questions being asked about soft-tissue injuries and why so many are still occurring.

In my years in the Premier League, I worked with some fantastic medical staff, club doctors, physios and fitness coaches.

At the beginning of every pre-season, I would explain what I needed from every single person mentioned above. My main topic was these soft-tissue injuries, like hamstring, calf and groin strains. I believed if the players were prepared and looked after in the right manner then we could avoid them.

My thinking was that joint injuries occurring from competitive challenges are always going to happen and we could not control those incidents, but muscular issues, we could.

My pre-season consisted of 10-14 days of endurance work, all within a certain range that would not impede or trouble the players’ main leg muscles.

After consultation with my medical staff, to ensure the players were strong enough, sessions would get progressively shorter and quicker, with and without the ball.

Once a solid strength and conditioning base had been implemented, and the season had begun, our general routine would entail pre-activation exercises like glute bridges and band walks, light weights, and lots of movement stretches.

The above approach worked well for me so, having read up about the number of soft-tissue injuries occurring now, I contacted medical people in the game who I respect to try to find out why.

Obviously I wondered if strength and conditioning programmes like the ones I used had dropped off, but I got a big rebuff on that. I was told that, as in most sports, footballers today have got bigger, stronger and quicker.

It is not down to the players playing more games, either. Manchester United had 66 competitive games in 2008-09, Liverpool had 63 in 2021-22 and this season Chelsea, Manchester City and Arsenal will all experience something similar.

So, what has happened over the past five years to affect our top players?

Today, there are more than two or three quick players in every team – the difference there is massive compared to when I started out as a manager more than 30 years ago.

That means that, while the distance covered by players has not altered much over time, the players are accelerating more, and also more often. It leads to much more stress in the top levels of their payload.

Surely this can be managed? Yes, but it is getting harder. Not because players are playing more games, but because they are playing more in a shorter period of time.

Over the past few years, players have started to question the amount of games they are now asked to play at international level, on top of the demands of club football.

Fifa and Uefa have increased everything, not just the fixture lists, but the number and size of competitions too.

Let’s start with this year’s World Cup, where a record 48 teams will be competing and playing a total of 104 games – double the number the last time the tournament was held in the United States in 1994. It will take 72 group games to lose just 16 of those teams before the first knockout stage.

Similarly, the new Champions League format also has a busload of teams.

It takes 144 games to get rid of 12 of the 36 clubs, before you even reach the knockout stages, and I have completely ignored all these early matches as I don’t understand how teams can lose game after game but still qualify for the next round.

I congratulate the so-called smaller countries who will experience the World Cup for the first time this summer.

Hopefully millions of supporters will enjoy the experience too but I am sure many neutral supporters will question the adage that bigger is better, especially because the expansion of all of these tournaments will adversely affect the Premier League.

For me, the Premier League is the best league in the world and we should be protecting it.

Many people in the game are concerned about player safety and although I am old school when it comes to how you look after players, I do believe that the top teams and players should be protected more to ensure our league remains the best and also the most successful in the world.

Teams in the NFL, the only international sports league that can compare with the Premier League’s success, only play one game a week.

It is an elite league, with elite players, and although they play a different sport which means that, physically, they operate on a different level, they are very conscious of having their best players in their best shape for their clubs and games.

The same should apply to the Premier League and the governing bodies in our country must be very careful with this dramatic increase in Fifa and Uefa’s conquest of new concepts and new competitions.

Our top players should not be used as cash cows to play in competitions that are over-subscribed.

I believe football’s top competitions should showcase our elite players at their peak level for their clubs and countries, so the Champions League and World Cup should be an almighty step up in class and a different level to anything we see on our own domestic stage.

Unfortunately, that is not the case. In my view, Fifa and Uefa have watered down both competitions, and it feels to me like the main aim now is to make a shed-load of money from games that have no substance, and little meaning.

We are entering the business end of the season and Fantasy Premier Leagues are beginning to take shape.

A number of teams have healthy-looking schedules for the next few gameweeks and we are entering a period where certain sides can be looked at more intensely.

Is adding more Liverpool players to your team the way to catapult yourself up the league table?

Liverpool’s fixtures are favourable and they seem to have turned a bit of a corner following a good win away at Sunderland. Virgil van Dijk (£5.9m) would be my defender of choice, but if money is tight then go for the cheaper Ibrahima Konate (£5.4m).

There are plenty of options in attacking positions with midfielders Mohamed Salah (£14m), Dominik Szoboszlai (£6.7m) and Florian Wirtz (£8.4m) all viable. They vary massively budget-wise, so depending on how much you have to spend will dictate who you can go for.

Striker Hugo Ekitike (£8.9m) has been disappointing of late, but I am still backing him to come good with this fixture run. He has 10 goals and two assists in 17 starts this season, and will be looking to build on those numbers in the coming weeks.

Former Everton midfielder Leon Osman, who was a guest on the podcast this week, has included Wirtz in his team.

“Liverpool are playing better now. Salah is playing better. I reluctantly have a Liverpool player in my team because they are playing better,” he said.

“It’s not allowed in my family mini-league. I’ve gone with Florian Wirtz. He’s been involved in goals and assists for Liverpool.

There is a really nice fixture turn now for Brentford. The obvious pick is Igor Thiago (£7m), who is on penalties and has 17 goals and one assist in 25 starts so far this season.

Outside of Thiago, a punt on Dango Ouattara (£5.8m) or Kevin Schade (£6.9m) could pay dividends, and at the other end they have the likes of Caoimhin Kelleher, who is a solid pick for clean sheets.

Kelleher (£4.6m) has proven he is pretty decent at saving penalties too, having stopped three in the Premier League so far this season.

Statman Dave: “Schade is the one we’ve been pushing this season. Ouattara is another one. We could go with [Michael] Kayode. I would go Ouattara over Schade at the moment.

Bournemouth have an extremely favourable next four games and I have to start by talking about £4.0m defender James Hill, who has been getting assists, defensive contributions and bonus points too.

Eli Junior Kroupi (£4.7m) is another great budget pick, but if I was to go for a forward I would spend extra and get Evanilson (£7m) who seems more guaranteed for minutes.

Charlotte Hornets guard LaMelo Ball says he feels ‘blessed’ after featuring against Houston Rockets a day after being involved in a car accident.

The 24-year-old’s custom-made Hummer was in a collision with an oncoming vehicle in Charlotte, North Carolina on Wednesday.

The American put up 11 points and recorded seven rebounds and seven assists in his side’s 105-101 loss – but Ball was just thankful to participate.

“I’m alive and blessed,” he said.

“God is great.”

The front left tyre of Ball’s vehicle came off during the accident but nobody suffered any serious injuries.

Ball was spotted being picked up by a black Lamborghini shortly after the accident. Police were on the scene at the time.

“Fortunately everybody is cool, so blessings,” added Ball.

Ball joined the Hornets in 2020, when he was the third pick in the overall draft.

In 2021, he was named Rookie of the Year after a standout debut season in North Carolina, while he was named an NBA All-Star in 2022.

In November 2024, Ball was fined $100,000 (£79,000) by the NBA for making an “offensive and derogatory” homophobic comment during a courtside interview.

How do Brentford keep doing it?

When boss Thomas Frank left to join Tottenham Hotspur last summer, there were fears over what it would mean for the Bees.

Even more so when managerial novice Keith Andrews was appointed as his successor.

Many tipped Brentford as relegation candidates, but people should have known better.

While Frank is licking his wounds after being sacked by Spurs, Andrews has the Bees challenging for European football – seventh in the Premier League and into the FA Cup fifth round.

Andrews is the latest man to be appointed Brentford boss with little or no top-flight managerial experience and go on to surpass expectations, making light of his predecessor’s departure.

In the past 15 years under owner Matt Benham, Brentford have appointed just six permanent managers – and arguably just one of those proved a mistake.

So, with various rivals constantly in managerial chaos, how do a club with one of the lowest budgets in the top flight – who have to deal with regularly losing their star players – keep getting it right with unproven appointments?

Brentford are renowned for their innovative, data-led approach under Benham, often defying conventional wisdom in search of an edge when it comes to recruitment and strategy,

They may have surprised some by naming the inexperienced Andrews as their boss, but it did not come as a shock for their own fans.

BBC Sport fan writer and Brentford supporter Ian Westbrook said at the time of his appointment: “While many were sceptical about the appointment of their set-piece coach Andrews as manager, having had no experience of being a boss previously, lots of Brentford fans were prepared to give the new man a chance.

“Matthew Benham and director of football Phil Giles have only made one bad managerial appointment in 10 years and they rectified that rapidly.

“Longer-term Brentford fans say everyone should ‘trust the process’ – and I do – but a good start is vital to ease any pressure from some fans and to give the squad a morale boost after a turbulent summer.”

A quick glance at the Benham era and you can see why fans should trust the process.

In 2011, the League One Bees gave Uwe Rosler his first taste of managing in English football. He got the club close to promotion before leaving for Wigan in 2013, where he was sacked after a year in charge.

Rosler was replaced as Brentford boss by the club’s sporting director Mark Warburton – in his first managerial job. He led the Bees up to the Championship in his first year in charge before they lost in the play-off semi-finals in 2014-15.

Warburton left the club at the end of that campaign and became Rangers boss. He led the Old Firm side back into Scotland’s top flight, but has not had much success as a manager since leaving the Glasgow giants in 2017.

Warburton’s replacement at Brentford proved to be Benham’s only blemish thus far. But the club acted quickly – sacking Marinus Dijkhuizen after just nine games of the 2015-16 season.

Following a brief interim spell from future England Under-21s boss Lee Carsley, Dean Smith joined from League One Walsall to take the permanent reins at Brentford.

Smith stabilised Brentford as a Championship club during his three-year stint before moving on to lead Aston Villa in the Premier League.

His assistant Frank stepped up to the top job at the Bees, securing promotion to the Premier League at the end of the 2020-21 season and helping establishing the club in the top flight during his seven years in charge.

Frank’s exit last summer paved the way for another internal appointment – and current boss Andrews has done a superb job thus far.

So why do Benham and Brentford keep getting things so right?

The decision to appoint Andrews sums things up neatly.

Externally it was viewed as a high-risk move, but internally it was seen as one of the lower-risk options.

Club sources are wary of shouting about their success from the rooftops because nothing is certain in football, but their reasoning around Andrews taking over was rock solid.

Firstly, he was already at the club. Senior staff knew him, they knew his strengths and weaknesses and what they were likely to get. He knew them. He understood the club model and had already bought into it.

What Brentford do not want is a new manager who comes into the club and starts telling everyone what they view as the best way to run it.

Brentford have a well-established model that has brought them success. There was no desire or intention to deviate from it. Having Andrews at the helm brought the continuity that guarded against a dramatic collapse.

That is not to say Andrews’ presence is an irrelevance. On the contrary, the belief is he has done an excellent job and if he had not, the evidence would be clear.

However, he has slotted into a well-established machine.

Contrast that with Frank at Tottenham, who followed on from Ange Postecoglou, Antonio Conte, Nuno Espirito Santo and Jose Mourinho.

It is fair to ask whether all those individuals failed through faults of their own – or did they struggle because of the lack of a wider strategy, given all five men approach the game in a different way?

The expectations at Brentford – who host Brighton on Sunday – are also totally different compared to Tottenham.

Frank took over a side that had just won a major European competition and had ambitions to return to the level that produced 11 top-five finishes in the past 16 seasons.

Brentford, by contract, are already operating at a level higher than they have been for virtually their entire existence.

No club should be swayed by external noise, but it is easier when the messages coming back are supportive rather than hostile.

Even after a tricky start to the season, when Brentford collected just four points from their opening five games and were 17th, fans were minded to trust those running the club rather than turn their ire on them.

Common sense, perhaps.