Pellegrini blames hectic winter schedule for failure of PL clubs to make it to CL quarters

Manchester City football team manager Manuel Pellegrini believes that the fact that Premier League players are playing in the chilling months of December and January has led to the failure of any English side to make it to the Champions League quarterfinals for a second time in three years.

Pellegrini's men were dumped out at the last 16 stage by Barcelona for a second consecutive season on Wednesday as Ivan Rakitic's solitary goal in the second leg sealed a 3-1 aggregate victory.

Arsenal and Chelsea had earlier been eliminated by French sides Monaco and Paris Saint-Germain respectively, whist Liverpool failed to even make it out of the group stages, Sport24 reported.

Pellegrini said that it is difficult to explain because it is a very strong league with teams that have the capacity economically to bring in very good players.

The Chilean added that on the other hand, possibly the fact of playing so many games in December and January whilst the teams in Germany, Italy, Spain all stop means they arrive fresher to this stage of the competition.

Pellegrini said that they are two very heavy months in terms of workload for the Premier League teams and that could be a related factor because there is no doubt that the English league has very good teams and players.

Whilst the Premier League sides tend to play four times in less than two weeks around the Christmas and New Year period, most of their European rivals enjoy a winter break.

Barca boss Luis Enrique voiced Pellegrini's concerns, admitting that tiredness could be a factor affecting English performances in Europe, but confessed to be a fan of the traditional Boxing Day fixtures himself.

Enrique said that it is very nice for them when they are on their holidays to watch all this English football with its culture of Boxing Day.