EPL’S FIGHTING FAB FOUR
Liverpool, City, United, Spurs in race for coveted title
GOING by the law of averages, there’s a good chance of an English team winning this season’s UEFA Champions League title.
That is because half of the quarter-final field consists of EPL teams, namely Liverpool, Manchester City, Manchester United and Tottenham.
In fact, EPL champions Man City are the bookmakers' favourites to lift the Champions League trophy after the final in Madrid at the Wanda Metropolitano on June 1.
On Wednesday, Liverpool upstaged European heavyweights Bayern Munich 3-1 away. and became the last English club to earn a quarter-final berth. Earlier, City, United and Spurs have booked their places.
Now, England can boast of a “fantastic four” for the Europe challenge. The other nations provided only one representative each. Spain has Barcelona, Italy has Juventus, the Netherlands represented by Ajax and Portugal by FC Porto.
Germany may be famous for their World Cup triumphs but its Bundesliga has become a pale shadow of the EPL. Conspicuously three English clubs knocked out three German clubs — Spurs ousted Borussia Dortmund, City routed Schalke and now Liverpool’s conquest of Bayern. United accounted for Neymar’s Paris Saint-Germain.
Former German World Cup star Paul Breitner has put his foot in his mouth. He declared two years back that the quality of play in the EPL “has been getting worse and worse over the past four-to-five years.”
Breitner said the EPL only attracts second-class players because the “best players aren’t willing to play at this level in the Premier League.”.
We shall see. After all, Juventus, with Cristiano Ronaldo, and Barcelona, with Lionel Messi, can still wreck English hopes
But for now, the pundits are praising the EPL, saying the exploits of the “Fab Four” in the Champions League reflect the growing strength of the Premier League.
Much of this has to do with the EPL having “big six” clubs, thanks to the financial power of the world’s most popular league. In contrast, there are only two to three dominant teams in La Liga, Serie A, Bundesliga and Ligue One.
City manager Pep Guardiola, who had coached Barcelona in La Liga and Bayern in Bundesliga, has admitted that the EPL is the most difficult league in the world.
This is a good sign of England’s resurgence in Europe. Based on UEFA club rankings, Real Madrid are No 1 followed by Bayern but both the clubs fell in the Champions League last-16 stage.
Liverpool midfielder James Milner said he hopes the English clubs will be able to avoid each other when the Champions League quarter-finals draw is made today.
In 2008, there were also four English quarter-finalists. The Champions League saw Liverpool beating Arsenal (last eight), Chelsea beating Liverpool (semifinal) and Manchester United beating Chelsea in the final.
In a survey of Liverpool fans in England, most say that they hope the Reds are drawn to meet Porto or Ajax in the quarter-final. And the teams they most want to avoid are Juventus and Barcelona.
The last EPL team to win the Champions League title was Chelsea in 2012 after beating Bayern 4-3 on penalties at Munich’s Allianz Arena.