Will English Clubs Dominate the Champions League Again?

By: Daryl | September 16th, 2008

Karl-Heinz Rummenigge thinks so. Yesterday, the Bayern Munich chairman told Premiere TV:

“The English are ahead of the rest of Europe. The Bundesliga is a long way behind clubs like Manchester United, Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal. When you look at the potential they have it will be a surprise if the English don’t dominate as they did last year … I can see Chelsea being very strong. They are one of the big favourites.”

Three of the four 2007/8 Champions League semi-finalists were English. Same story in 2006/7. And I think you’ll find very few people outside of England who’d argue that more of the same is a good thing.

But is Remmenigge right? Or was the heavy Premier League semi-final presence in the last couple of Champions Leagues just a case of lightning striking twice?

Honestly, it’s hard to say. I think you could argue that the Premier League has an advantage because it’s been the same four teams in the Champions League every year. And – possibly for that reason – the Premier League has more teams than any other league who realistically expect to make it out of the group stage.

Even if that happens (and there’s no guarantee it will, especially as Liverpool are in such a tough group) then it’s still a lottery from the last sixteen onwards. Plenty of teams; like Barcelona, Real Madrid, Inter Milan, Roma, Rummenigge’s own Bayern Munich and others can expect to make the semis and I’ll be hugely surprised if we see three Premier League teams in the last four again.

But if we do? Then the Champions League has a pretty serious problem.

Some Related Stories:

Category: Champions League, World Football

« Citeh Continues Market Assault; Ronaldo Gets A Job. | Home | Champions League LiveBlogs September 16th 2008 »

The Offside RSS Feeds

Ak

echo "$Rob".
But it'll be the same again me thinks.
diana

Same here, Rob.

Until the line-up for the knock-out stages are confirmed, it remains to be seen. I really hope the English dominance we had been seeing in the past two seasons is just a flash in the pan. Or else like what Daryl said, then there's a pretty serious problem.
Rob

I don't watch the CL to watch English sides play one another - so i hope for quite a mixed bunch when we get to the latter stages.
schaafito

I agree with you 100%, and this coming from a lifelong EPL follower. Especially given Liverpool's group and their form in the qualies (don't talk about the win over united, we all know CL and EPL are two totally different beasts) I don't expect them to make it out of group.

England teams also (hate to admit it) had a favorable round-o-16 fixtures in 07. Chelsea played Olympiacos, Fenerbache and then Liverpool. Liverpool's biggest test came from Arsenal, not Inter (2-0, 1-0 over Inter). It was almost guaranteed with that Draw than an English team would be in the final.

Final four this year will probably be Chelsea, Manchester United, Inter, Barca. A heavy force from england still, but nowhere near last year. Then again it all depends on the 16 draw, which I think has much more of a factor in the final 4 than the actual teams themselves.