Viva Espana: La Liga dominating Europe

Athletic Bilbao has set fire to this season's Europa League

With the football season reaching its climax, a look around the leagues in Europe and the results in the Champions League and the Europa League have confirmed what footballers and experts have known and believed for years, that, the Spanish League is without doubt the best in the world, regardless of the incessant hype created by Sky and other worldwide England-centric media about the English Premier League being the numero uno. The stage is set for all-Spanish finals in both the Champions and Europa leagues.

Talking of the Europa League first; on their way to the semi-finals, all three Spanish outfits in the Europa League have humbled the best of their counterparts from Seria A, English Premier League and the Bundesliga. The manner in which Athletico Bilbao outclassed Manchester United over two legs has been the talk of the season. Their relentless running, haranguing of the English champions, endless enthusiasm, vibrant energy levels, resilient defending and deadly counterattacks, left everybody flabbergasted. While defeats to Barcelona in two Champion League finals had left most supporters of the Red Devils bitter, this unexpected, yet thoroughly deserved victories for the Basque side at both home and away, have suddenly generated tremendous love and interest for this young and talented Spanish side. As a result, a lot of neutral fans want them to win the Europa League.

Whilst, Athletico will have to overcome the dangerous Portuguese side, Sporting Club De Portugal in the semis, their possible opponents and domestic rivals, Athletico Madrid and Valencia appear as strong contenders to upset the Basque team’s apple carts. The key to FC Porto success last year was not Andreas Villas Boas, as many would like to believe, but the deadly ‘Falcon,’ Columbian striker Falcao, whose seventeen goals broke the previous European record of fifteen goals by Jürgen Klinsmann in a single season, which were enough to help FC Porto win the Europa League last year. When ‘Madrid’s other great team’ sold their famous strikers Sergio Aguero, Simao and Diego Forlan as part of the overhauling of their squad last season, the general consensus among their fans was that it wasn’t a step in the right direction. However, the mood changed from despair to excitement and hope with the forty million Euros acquisition of Falcao, Brazilian midfielder Diego on loan and promising youngsters Spaniard Adrian Lopez and Turkish Arda Turan. The team needed time to gel and were struggling mid-season until former Argentinian defender Simeone, Falcao’s former boss at River Plate was given the reins. Immediately, the former tenacious defender infused his rugged attitude into his wards and the results have shown.

Another 'el classico' in the Champions League Final?

Meanwhile, Valencia, the team Athletico Madrid play in the semi-finals have looked sharp of late. The way they took the game to Real Madrid and earned a deserved point on Sunday, speaks volumes of their continual improvement against stronger teams since their unambitious and forlorn display at Stamford Bridge towards the end of last year, when Chelsea blew them away by three goals to nil in the Uefa Champions’ League group stages. The silly, needless errors have diminished to a great extent and the backline commanded by Frenchman Adel Rami, look more disciplined now than before. It, therefore, will be a well-contested duel between these two domestic rivals to reach the final. And, whoever of the two slips through, will be more than a match for the Basque side.

Focusing on the Champions League, there’s hardly any team that had wanted to face either Barcelona or Real Madrid. As soon as the draw for the quarterfinals and the road to the final had been made, talk of an all-Spanish, ‘classico’ final is doing the rounds in the media circles all around Europe. Football pundits wondered aloud if either Bayern, Milan or Chelsea had it in them to stop the Spanish giants from facing each at the home of Bayern Munich in Munich. May be, due to the final being played at their stadium, Bayern are supposed to have that extra bit of motivation to overcome any team that tries to block their progress homewards towards Munich. But then, are they good enough to beat the Los Merengues over 180 minutes; possible, but very difficult. At current form, when they won eight of their last nine games on the trot, even Mourinho will acknowledge the Germans will be too hot to handle for his highly talented and capable squad. With Barcelona hot on their heels, Madrid have looked nervy in their last few domestic leagues games, dropping an unexpected six points over the last few weeks. When they first garnered a ten point lead over the Catalans earlier this year, even Guardiola admitted they had blown away their chances and the title was Madrid’s to lose, and that’s what exactly has happened. All the talk of Real winning the title before the ‘classico’ have evaporated and unlike the English Premier League, where the highly touted Manchester derby on 30^th April may be rendered meaningless if the Red Devils clinch the title before that, which is very much on the cards, the La Liga title, on the other hand, is likely to be decided with the top of the table clash at the Camp Nou on the 21^st of April. The only problem might be the timing of the clash, coming in between both legs of Champions League semi-finals. I expect both, Barcelona and Madrid to suffer from the hangover of their first leg semi-final games and it may not be the usual pacy, adrenal pumping, lung bursting affair. However, taking into account the deep-seated rivalry and vendetta between the two, you never know where the energy might come from. That’s why it is El Clasico.

The Bayern-Madrid game will be the pick of the semi-finals, though the Barcelona-Chelsea one will be very interesting too. It is bound to generate tremendous passion after that nerve-wracking tie in 2009, the last time these two had met at the same stage. It has always been a scrappy affair whenever these two have met and don’t expect the upcoming doubleheader to be any different. The leading lights, starting from Mourinho to many other well-known football columnists and pundits have already written off the Londoners’ chances. Nevertheless, you just never know. Chelsea have plenty of experience and their physical play, similar to Madrid’s, has the power to unsettle the Blaugrana. It will all go down to tiny details and any error might prove fatal.

Thus, for diehard neutrals, these four games will be a festival of football of the highest order, which no one can even think of given them a miss. However, the big question once again will be, can Bayern and Chelsea prevent an all-Spanish final and surprise everyone with a Anglo-German duel on German territory. Maybe or maybe not, but then you never know.