The group stage of the Champions League, which was completed on Wednesday amidst tension and controversy, has confirmed the domination of German and English clubs in Europe - and the decline of the once powerful Italians.
For the first time, all four of the German and English teams competing -Schalke 04, Borussia Dortmund, Bayer Leverkusen and title holders Bayern Munich, as well as Chelsea, Arsenal, Manchester United and Manchester City - have made it into the tournament's round of 16.
There will be just three Spanish teams in the knockout stage - Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid - plus one Russian side, Zenit St Petersburg, and only AC Milan from Italy. The other teams to have advanced are Paris St Germain of France, Olimpiacos of Greece and Galatasaray of Turkey.
Bayern Munich idol Franck Ribery celebrated the four German teams going through by saying: "The Bundesliga is dominating in Europe at the moment."
"The level of the Bundesliga has developed enormously in the past few years. It's among the best leagues in the world, if not the best league worldwide," he added.
And former Germany captain Lothar Matthaeus said: "I see the Bundesliga as the strongest league in Europe. I actually expected all four teams to reach the Champions League round of 16."
Leverkusen booked their place on Tuesday with a 1-0 win at Real Sociedad, the only Spanish team to disappoint. Leverkusen were helped by Group A winners Manchester United beating Shakhtar Donetsk 1-0.
The Daily Mail has also hailed "England's clean sweep," labelling it "an important achievement," though also bemoaning the fact that Asenal were almost eliminated after a 2-0 defeat at Napoli.
Group B was dominated by Real Madrid, who - along with city rivals Atletico - chalked up the highest points tally, 16. The whites also topped the goals chart with 20, nine of them put away by the rampant Cristiano Ronaldo. Group B also saw the failure of Italian champions Juventus, who crashed out at Galatasaray in a snow-delayed match.
Paris St Germain cruised through Group C without any problems, with Swedish veteran Zlatan Ibrahimovic leading the charge.
Defending champions Bayern Munich seemed set fair to carry all before them in Group D - only to be stopped in their tracks by Manchester City.
Bayern thought about taking all six games after building a 2-0 lead after just 12 minutes against City on Tuesday. However, David Silva and company turned the game around to 3-2, and in the end were just one goal away from snatching top spot.
Bayern will have to tighten up in defence if they wish to become the first team since AC Milan in 1990 to win back-to-back titles.
Chelsea, for their part recovered from a poor start to win Group E and Napoli were unlucky to be edged out in Group F after a bizarre triple tie with Dortmund and Arsenal.
Ironically, Napoli were eliminated with 12 points while Zenit went through in Group G with just six, having won only one game.
That group was dominated by impressive Atletico Madrid, with Diego Costa in astonishing form. Barcelona had few problems in winning Group H, in which Milan salvaged some pride for Italy by scraping in second above luckless Ajax.
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