Pep’s still obsessed but Klopp, Poch and Ole have other priorities
High-octane domestic title race set to impact on quartet in Europe
ENGLISH football’s financial dominance of Europe was underlined last month when Tottenham — without silverware for over a decade — leapfrogged Juventus, who are on course for an eighth successive Serie A title, in Deloitte’s Football Money League.
Yet since Chelsea’s improbable Champions League triumph in 2012, Premier League clubs have been unable to turn their economic power into success on the pitch in Europe’s elite competition.
As the Champions League returns this week, all four English representatives in the last 16 are in rude health, with Manchester City, Liverpool and Tottenham in a three-way fight for the title and Manchester United reborn under Ole Gunnar Solskjaer.
But the quartet lack an air of authority in Europe, and this year’s last 16 seems to be divided into clubs obsessed by winning the competition, like City, and clubs with different priorities, arguably including Liverpool, Spurs and United.
City and Liverpool — who face German opposition in Schalke and Bayern Munich respectively — are among the competition favourites despite their unconvincing performances in the group stage and their progress could have a significant bearing on the highoctane race for the League title.
Liverpool supporters regard the European Cup as their competition, but the push to win a first championship in nearly three decades has taken priority over bettering last season’s run to the final. Less pressure may suit Jurgen Klopp’s side, however, and they remain narrow favourites against ageing super- power Bayern, who are vulnerable on the counter-attack and will be without suspended talisman Thomas Muller for both legs.
For City, there is no single priority and winning the Champions League has become an obsession for Pep Guardiola and the club’s owners. It represents the final frontier for the club, who have made such seismic strides domestically in the past decade, but continue to look inexperienced in Europe faced with more historied opponents.
With a kind route to the quarter-finals, City’s best hope of success could be the competitiveness of the title race, with little chance they could get caught cold like last season, but the sheer number of fixtures may prove too much, as they target the quadruple.
There is also a whiff of new-money obsession about Paris St Germain’s desire to win the trophy and legitimise themselves as a European superpower. United fans regarded a clash with the runaway Ligue 1 leaders as a nightmarish prospect, but their upturn under Solskjaer and injuries to Neymar and Edinson Cavani have left them optimistic ahead of tonight’s first leg.
Having propelled United into the top four, the big question for the interim manager is whether he risks dropping off in the League by prioritising Europe, but the tie is something of a free hit and only a humbling defeat would seriously damage his prospect of earning the job full time.
His main rival for the position, Mauricio Pochettino, is also hoping to further enhance his reputation on the biggest stage and Spurs can look forward to a relatively pressure-free knockout stage. After performing the great escape in the group, they are not expected to beat German leaders Borussia Dortmund, with Harry Kane and Dele Alli missing for tomorrow’s first leg, and they go in to the tie with their League position secure.
Pochettino has built a side that can never be written off, however, and in Heung-Min Son they have one of the form players in Europe. Dortmund, like Liverpool, are focused on returning to domestic dominance but, propelled by English wonderkid Jadon Sancho, they are different to the side beaten twice by Spurs in last season’s group stage.
Elsewhere, Lionel Messi’s Barcelona, Lyon’s opponents, are obsessed with lifting the trophy for different reasons, having grown bored of domestic dominance and desperate to knock Real Madrid off their perch in Europe. The same is true of Juve, who recruited Cristiano Ronaldo from the Bernabeu with the sole intention of winning after losing the 2015 and 2017 finals.
Real, winners of four of the past five titles, have found their feet under Santiago Solari and the 13-time victors will always have an aura in the European Cup, even if it may no longer be one of invincibility after the departures of Zinedine Zidane and Ronaldo.
Real are firm favourites against Ajax, but city rivals Atletico Madrid, who face Juve, will be among the clubs who sense an opportunity to break their stranglehold. In the least glamorous tie, Roma face Porto, with both clubs hoping to be this season’s surprise package.