Liverpool, Tottenham, Chelsea and Arsenal have made history by making England the first country ever to have four representatives in the Champions League and Europa League finals in a single season. On Tuesday, Liverpool were the first club to book their place in the Champions League 2019 final, as they stunned Barcelona at Anfield to overturn a 3-0 deficit from the first leg, scoring four goals to go through 4-3 on aggregate. On Wednesday, Mauro Pochettino’s Spurs pulled off a come-back of arguably greater magnitude against Ajax in Amsterdam. After having gone 3-0 down on aggregate following two first-half goals by the Dutch side, Spurs scored three away goals in the second half to secure their first-ever appearance in a Champions League/European Cup final. Chelsea-Arsenal make Europa League final an all-London affair On Thursday, a hat-trick from Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang and an Alexandre Lacazette strike saw Arsenal win 4-2 at Valencia (7-3 on aggregate) to become the first team to reach the 2019 Europa League final. Meanwhile, Chelsea had a much more difficult task in overcoming Eintrecht Frankfurt at Stamford Bridge, in a game that went all the way to penalties, with Eden Hazard converting the final spot-kick to win the shootout 4-3. Liverpool and Spurs will now battle it out in the first all-English Champions League final since 2008, when Manchester United beat Chelsea on penalties to secure their third European Cup title. Chelsea and Arsenal, meanhwhile, will make up the first all-English Europa League/UEFA Cup final since 1972, when Tottenham beat Wolves over two legs to become the inaugural winners of the newly formed competition.<doc-sep>England's Premier League has claimed a clean sweep of all four places in the finals of Europe's two club competitions as the most commercially successful league in the world finally translated its financial power into success on the field. Liverpool will face Tottenham Hotspur in the Champions League while in the Europa League Arsenal take on Chelsea. No country has ever produced the finalists for the Champions League and the Europa League in the same year before now. The Premier League's money has been invested in some of the top players in the world. According to FIFA's 'Global Transfer Report' in 2018, $5.14 billion was spent on players by Europe's top five leagues, with English clubs alone spending $1.98 billion on transfers from abroad. But while player purchases, such as the 76 million pounds ($98.88 million) Liverpool spent on Dutch defender Virgil van Dijk and 56 million on Brazilian goalkeeper Alisson Becker, have been significant, it is perhaps the investment in coaching that has paid the most dividends. England is now home to some of the sport's elite managers such as Manchester City's Spanish coach Pep Guardiola, Liverpool's German boss Juergen Klopp and Tottenham's Argentine coach Mauricio Pochettino. There is no question that money talks in football and the Premier League generates the most revenue in the European game. European governing body UEFA's 'benchmarking' report, released in January, showed, based on 2017 figures, that England's 20 Premier League clubs snapped up more than one-quarter of the total revenue in European football, totalling 5.3 billion euros ($5.95 billion). This put them comfortably ahead of Spain's La Liga (2.9 billion euros), the German Bundesliga (2.8 billion euros), Italy's Serie A (2.2 billion euros) and France's Ligue 1 (1.6 billion euros). But that collective strength still leaves English club's main continental rivals in powerful positions. According to Deloitte's latest 'Football Money League', which ranks clubs by revenue, Real Madrid and Barcelona are the top two revenue earners with Bayern Munich fourth and Paris St-Germain sixth. Champions League finalists! Unbelievable character shown from the boys last night, we never gave up! Thank you to all the travelling fans and the support back home, couldn’t have made it this far without you. #COYS pic.twitter.com/U0yMzUHQaA — Dele (@dele_official) May 9, 2019 However, those clubs dominate their domestic leagues, while in England a 'big six' provides a level of intense competition at the top that may well provide the foundation for success in Europe. "It's the toughest league I've ever played as a manager, for the quality of the rivals – no doubts," Manchester City manager Pep Guardiola, who could win his second straight Premier League title on Sunday, said last week. It is a view which has been echoed by Pochettino, Klopp and former Chelsea manager Antonio Conte. ITALIAN DOMINANCE It is perhaps no coincidence that when Conte was a Juventus player, a Champions League winner in 1996, Serie A had a level of competition similar to the Premier League's current 'big six'. The 'sette sorelle', or 'seven sisters' was made up of Juve, AC Milan, Inter Milan, Lazio, AS Roma, Parma and Fiorentina, all of whom were contenders at the top of the table and in Europe. Between 1989 and 1998, there was only one Champions League final that did not feature an Italian club. The same period also saw four 'all Italian' UEFA Cup finals (the predecessor to the Europa League). Having intense competition at home doesn't necessarily translate into European success after all England has only one Champions League winner in the past 10 years with Spain winning the last five editions, but it is likely to have an impact. We see you all the way up there, Gooners Your loyalty. Your dedication. Your support Thank you - together, we're on our way #UEL pic.twitter.com/b8Lo3Xwpsr — Arsenal FC (@Arsenal) May 9, 2019 Certainly, Liverpool, who overturned a 3-0 first-leg deficit in their semi-final with Barcelona, to reach the final with a 4-0 victory at Anfield, look to have benefited from their tough season, in which they have lost just once in the league. The Saturday before the Barca return, Liverpool had to fight to the end with a 3-2 victory over Newcastle United thanks to a late winner from Divock Origi. Sports psychologist David Horrocks, says there is evidence that coming through high-pressure games increases the chances of positive outcomes. "The deliberate practice theory suggests that the more competitive or demanding scenarios you put yourself in, the higher the likelihood of you succeeding in those situations," he said. INTENSE COMPETITION Crucially the influx of talent in the Premier League has not been limited to the top teams. Unlike most of their European counterparts, the Premier League shares television revenue in such a way that the middle to lower ranked teams are also able to bring in quality from abroad or retain their own players more easily. Burnley manager Sean Dyche, whose team beat Champions League finalists Tottenham in February, says European coaches in England, that he has spoken to, notice how tough the games against lower teams can be. "They say their biggest shock is teams like ourselves will take them on, home and away. Absolutely take them on," he told Reuters. 10 goals this season! Double figures! More importantly... into the final!!! Thanks for the electric support See you in Baku #letsgochelsea pic.twitter.com/nSdQF5uuds — Ruben Loftus-Cheek (@rubey_lcheek) May 9, 2019 "In some of the European leagues, they said, the smaller teams are 'oh well, we aren't going to win there' and the game just sort of pans out. Whereas here, every team fights. There are no easy games in the Premier League." That same argument has been used in the past, however, to explain Premier League failings in Europe as the intensity of domestic games is blamed for fatigue. That should be a reminder against reading too much into short-term trends in European football. This may be England's year but there is a long way to go before Premier League teams match the dominance of Spain -- winners of seven of the last 10 Champions Leagues and six of the last 10 Europa League campaigns.<doc-sep>With two English teams in the Champions League final, and another two in the Europa League final, we take a look at how European qualification in the Premier League has shaped up for next season. Manchester City's victory over Watford in the FA Cup final means seventh in the Premier League, Wolves, will enter the Europa League in the second qualifying round with ties on July 25 and Aug. 1. Wolves will have to play six matches before the end of August just to get to the group stage, with the Premier League getting under way on the weekend of Aug. 10. Arsenal (after they lost the Europa League final) and Manchester United are now guaranteed to start direct in the UEL group stage in September. - When are the Premier League fixtures published? - When does the new Premier League season start? - When does the transfer window close? Here's how European qualification is now set. EUROPEAN PLACES Champions League: Manchester City, Liverpool, Chelsea, Tottenham Europa League group stage: Arsenal, Manchester United Europa League qualifying: Wolves What happens to the UCL place reserved for the titleholder? The winners of the Champions League this season -- Liverpool or Tottenham -- have qualified for next season's competition via the league. This will have no effect on the number of Premier League teams in next season's draw, as the holders only take the place reserved for them if they need it. So, for instance, Liverpool winning the final does not mean fifth in the league also goes into the UCL. What it does mean is the champions of Austria, FC Salzburg, will definitely go directly through rather than having to qualify. There will also be promotions through qualifying for the Czech champions (final qualifying round), PAOK of Greece (third qualifying round), plus Israeli champions Maccabi Tel Aviv and APOEL, the winners of the league in Cyprus (both second qualifying round). And what about the UCL place for UEL winners? As Chelsea won the Europa League, Lyon, the third-placed team in France, go through to the Champions League group stage. Austrian runners-up LASK Linz and second place in Turkey, Istanbul Basaksehir, are elevated to the UCL third qualifying round.<doc-sep>
Has one country ever had all the European finalists before? Teams from England, Spain, Italy and Germany have enjoyed spells of dominance in Europe, though 2019 saw English clubs make history The Champions League and Europa League have been dominated in recent years by teams hailing from the same handful of countries. Spain, England, Italy and Germany are all guaranteed at least four teams in the Champions League group stage which, of course, helps. Since the 1999-2000 season, La Liga's representatives, in particular, have flourished, providing at least one finalist in 11 of the past 19 editions of the Champions League. That dominance is reflected in the Europa League too, with 10 of the past 19 tournaments featuring at least one Spanish team. In that same time period there have been a number of cases where finalists in both competitions have been drawn from the same country. It has happened six times in the Champions League and three times in the Europa League. But history was made in the 2018-19 season when all four European final slots went to English clubs in Tottenham, Liverpool, Chelsea and Arsenal. Liverpool and Tottenham booked their place in the Champions League 2019 final in Madrid by beating Barcelona and Ajax respectively, while Arsenal and Chelsea are set to face off in UEFA's secondary club competition in Baku. Has it happened before? A case of all four European finalists coming from one country has never happened before, so it was a momentous occasion for English football in 2018-19 when Arsenal and Chelsea progressed from their respective UEL semi-final ties. Arsenal overcame Valencia while Chelsea saw off Frankfurt on penalties the day after Tottenham and Liverpool were confirmed Champions League as finalists. It is the first time that all four European finals in a single season have involved English clubs. While we hadn't seen four finalists from one country across the UEFA's continental competitions until now, there have been a number of instances where a country boasted three of the four finalists. The first time it happened was in 1980, when Eintracht Frankfurt and Borussia Monchengladbach contested an all-German UEFA Cup final, while Hamburg played - and lost against - Nottingham Forest in the European Cup final. Ten years later, in 1990, Italy had both UEFA Cup finalists - Juventus and Fiorentina - and the winner of the European Cup as Arrigo Sacchi's AC Milan defeated Benfica. Article continues below Indeed, it was a glorious decade for Serie A and the three-team feat was repeated in 1995 (AC Milan in the Champions League, Parma and Juventus in the UEFA Cup) and 1998 (Juventus in the Champions League, Inter and Lazio in the UEFA Cup). In 2008, British teams accounted for three of the four European finalists, with England's Manchester United facing Chelsea in the Champions League, while Scottish side Rangers took on Zenit in the Europa League. More recently, Spanish teams have been to the fore on both fronts, with three representatives across the two finals in 2014 and 2016 (Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid in the Champions League, Sevilla in Europa League on both occasions).