Manchester United manager Jose Mourinho has admitted that he does not believe English clubs are on the verge of enjoying an era of success in the Champions League.
Manchester City and Tottenham Hotspur have already qualified from their groups despite being drawn alongside Napoli and Real Madrid respectively, while United, Chelsea and Liverpool are all well placed to make it five English teams in the knockout rounds.
City are among the favourites to lift the trophy for the first time this season too, but Mourinho believes that foreign clubs have the advantage due to their winter break.
"No, I don't think so. I don't think so because I always say the Champions League only starts in February and in February, the English teams are after December and January where we can play 20 matches over two months and the Germans, the French, the Spanish, the Italians, they all come from a winter break," he told The Mirror.
"So I think they arrive in better conditions than the English teams. It's also a fact that any match you play in this country, if you don't go strong, you lose. We go to Bristol in the [EFL Cup] quarter-final and if you don't go with a strong team, you lose. That's as simple as that.
"In other other countries, between the top teams and the others, there is huge difference and not just in terms of talent and potential but also in terms of mentality. Here, the smaller teams want to win, want to compete, want to have the courage to try and get a result."
An English club has not won the Champions League since Chelsea in 2012, at which point the Premier League had provided at least one team in seven of the previous eight finals.
Barney Corkhill
