Hope for Man City, Chelsea & Spurs - great Champions League comebacks

The second legs of the Champions League last-16 ties arrive this week with three Premier League heavyweights staring at three-goal deficits, yet history insists the mission is not impossible. Manchester City, Chelsea and Tottenham Hotspur travel to Real Madrid, Paris Saint-Germain and Atlético Madrid respectively, each needing a memorable turnaround to keep English hopes alive in the competition.

Only four teams in Champions League history have recovered from losing a first-leg knockout tie by three or more goals, but those precedents will fuel belief in the away dressing rooms on Tuesday and Wednesday nights.

Tottenham themselves authored one of the most dramatic reversals in modern memory. In the 2019 semi-final against Ajax, Mauricio Pochettino’s side trailed 3-0 on aggregate at half-time in Amsterdam before Lucas Moura’s second-half hat-trick, completed in the 95th minute, sent Spurs to the final on away goals. The echoes of that Amsterdam evening will accompany the squad as they attempt to claw back a 3-0 deficit against Diego Simeone’s Atlético.

Chelsea, thumped 4-1 by PSG at Stamford Bridge, must now score at least three times in the French capital without reply. The Blues can draw inspiration from Liverpool’s 2019 semi-final resurrection against Barcelona. After a 3-0 loss at the Camp Nou, Jürgen Klopp’s men triumphed 4-0 at Anfield despite missing Mohamed Salah and Roberto Firmino. Divock Origi’s early strike and Georginio Wijnaldum’s quick-fire double levelled the tie before Trent Alexander-Arnold’s corner routine caught Barca napping and Origi slammed home the decisive fourth.

Manchester City, beaten 3-0 by Real Madrid at the Etihad, must now prosper at the Bernabéu. Pep Guardiola’s side can cite Roma’s 2018 quarter-final as proof of possibility. Having lost the first leg 4-1 in Catalonia, Eusebio Di Francesco’s team won 3-0 at the Stadio Olimpico through Edin Džeko, Daniele De Rossi and Kostas Manolas, eliminating Barcelona on away goals.

The most extreme recovery remains Barcelona’s own 2017 heroics against PSG. After a 4-0 hiding in Paris, Barça engineered a 6-1 second-leg triumph at the Camp Nou, capped by Sergi Roberto’s 95th-minute goal—an episode immortalised as La Remontada.

Further back, Deportivo La Coruña overturned a 4-1 deficit against AC Milan in 2004, scoring four unanswered goals at the Riazor inside 76 minutes to progress. The Galicians’ fearless approach offers a tactical blueprint for any side chasing the impossible.

With 51 previous instances of a three-or-more-goal first-leg deficit, only four have advanced, yet the quartet of successes ensures the dream persists. City, Chelsea and Spurs each carry the weight of recent English setbacks—no Premier League club won the opening round of last-16 ties—yet the competition’s annals remind them that margins, however daunting, can be erased inside 90 breathless minutes.