Onus on Real Madrid v Barcelona and Man United v Chelsea to restore thrill

23 October 2014 05:01

Football fans could do with thrilling encounters after the Champions league blockbusters ended up being one sided nightmares.

First things first, Jose Mourinho’s Chelsea are the only English club which look like being part of “the elite Champions league”. This isn’t an over-reaction to midweek results but a fair assessment to how we saw Manchester City, Arsenal and Liverpool struggle versus the likes of Dortmund, Anderlecht, Roma, CSKA Moscow, Ludogorets and Basel over the last 40 days.

No English team featured in the quarter final stages of CL 2012-13 and Chelsea reached semis of the following edition. Having hit six of the 10 goals scored by four English clubs midweek, the blues look the only genuine semi-final contender, amongst them, for 2014-15.

Compared to that, four Spanish clubs hit 12 goals playing opposition of the calibre of Liverpool, Ajax, FC Porto and Malmo. That was further bettered by their German counterparts who waltzed to 17 goals; despite two of them playing at intimidating home turfs of Roma and Galatasaray. That Germany hold aloft the FIFA World cup was drilled into our heads again and again - over past two nights.

Disappointingly for neutrals, like yours truly, who live in the far east, and have a battle to wake at 2:45am starts, each of the round three group stage blockbuster games ended even before spectators had warmed up. Pep Guardiola’s Bayern Munich, Luis Enrique’s FC Barcelona, Carlo Ancelloti’s Real Madrid and Jurgen Klopp’s Borussia Dortmund had a nett 17-2 winning score margin in games where viewers were expecting footballing treat.

The gap between the best and the rest is fast widening. And you can easily put most of the English clubs and all of the Italian clubs in the “rest” category. Roma’s misery aside, Serie A leaders Juventus were handed their second loss in group stages.to Olympiacos. The Greek champions traditionally come to make up the numbers, having managed themselves out of group stages only four times in past two decades.

While the debate in Spain is on Bale’s fitness and if Suarez should start or come from the bench for the El-Clasico, England are debating which of their teams can come out of the group stages of the Champions League. Reigning EPL champions Manchester City had an ‘almost must win’ game, were leading 2-0 till the 65th minute vs CSKA, couldn’t hold on and now on brink of elimination. Liverpool sold Luis Suarez to buy a bucket full of Southampton’s best players. Despite the handicap, at the time of writing, not only The Saints sit two places above, they have scored 50% more goals than the Reds in domestic league.

Out of the 63 goals scored midweek in the champions league, only two were scored by Englishmen- John Terry and James Milner – none of whom find themselves in the national team starting lineup. Gary Linekar’s couple of scathing tweets hits the nail on its head.

“We might have to stop pretending that the Premier League's the strongest in the world. Most entertaining it may be, but La Liga is stronger.”

“And it's not just Real Madrid and Barca. Other Spanish teams have won the Europa League 6 out of the last 10 years.”

Thankfully millions can expect the El Clasico, coming up this weekend, to maintain its status as the “ultimate football encounter” in terms of excitement and quality. Since 2011, Real Madrid and Barcelona have met 19 times in all competitions with Barcelona winning seven times to the Galacticos six wins. The goals scored also tantalizingly close at 33-31, in favour of the Catalan giants. Bayern Munich players, Ibrahimovich, Pirlo, Vidal, Toure, Hazard, Aguero and Thiago Silva aside, the world’s 22 best players will be on show on Saturday night . be there!

Twenty four hours after El Clasico, Chelsea will visit Old Trafford, keen to maintain their flawless domestic campaign start. Manchester United meanwhile will stay determined to be in the title race despite early blemishes. Since 2011, both teams met 11 times with the red devils notching five wins to the four by the blues. The goals scored also tantalizingly close at 20-19, in favour of the team from Manchester.

All to play for. look forward to some edge of seat, exciting, end to end, memorable encounters.

Source: DSG